Stepping into the XXI century

A BRIDGE BETWEEN AUTHORITY AND BUSINESS

Natalya Malysheva,
Advisor to the Governor
Director General, Foundation of Federal
and Regional Programs

        Last year, in order to unite the interests of our city and commercial companies ready to make investments in the city's projects, St. Petersburg established the Foundation of Federal and Regional Programs. This Foundation's only promoter is our city administration, so it is not influenced by any company. The Foundation helps all organizations sharing interests with St. Petersburg.
        The Foundation's organizational structure consists of an executive directorate and a board of trustees headed by the acting governor. It also includes vice-governors responsible for the investment process. The executive directorate organizes preliminary selection and provides expert advise for projects. The Foundation includes an advisory council representing commercial and research structures that are most active in cooperation with the city administration.
        Projects realized by the Foundation include the creation of an information system for businesspeople, development of investment laws and special criteria for the selection of investment projects. In fact, the Foundation has developed into the Investment Council's executive structure.
        In course of developing the laws we asked for the help of leading international organizations represented in St. Petersburg and their most authoritative specialists were placed at our disposal. We received a team of thirty economists, financiers, and lawyers who examined the six alternative investment designs that had been developed in our city by that time. Thus the basic project was chosen, developed by the City Property Management Committee. Several round tables involving experts and authors of the draft laws allowed us to examine more than 600 amendments suggested by the experts. Next we sited our projects in the Internet to give everyone the opportunity to comment on them. Then the project suggested as the basic one was ratified at the Investment Council's sitting and submitted to the Legislative Assembly. This was followed by discussions among the deputies, meetings with factions, and a conference committee which examined 208 amendments suggested by the deputies. In summer 1998 the Legislative Assembly adopted the block of investment laws which are now being perfected for practical application. Thus we developed a mechanism allowing everybody to participate in the development of laws.

P. S. New East We asked Mr. Georges Ivanoff, Manager, Regional Component, "Support for Foreign Investment in the Russian Federation" TACIS project (Moscow) to comment upon Natalya Malysheva's article. He wrote to us the following...