Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO on economy

World
Europe

By CGTN's World Insight

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that a combination of sanctions, trade barriers and a lack of trust could lead to an unprecedented global crisis at last week’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

In fact, those challenges are what Russia faced in recent years, especially tough sanctions from the west. Despite setbacks, Russia's economy managed to grow, with better transnational cooperation.

CGTN's senior correspondent Tian Wei had an exclusive interview with Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, about a better return-on-investment rate in Russia. President Putin awarded Dmitriev the Order of Alexander Nevsky for his contribution to international investment projects on behalf of Russia.

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Dmitriev fund acts as a catalyst for working alongside global investors – including companies from US allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Japan. It also has many Chinese partners on the back of stronger economic ties.

"We have partnerships with 20 countries, we deploy 20 billion with them, and we get good return, none of our partners lose money from their investments," said Dmitriev, adding that it's challenging to keep this standard because they are very conservative in their approach.

In response to people's theoretical questions about Russia, Dmitriev replied, "We just say look at the returns, returns are much better than any indices of SP500 of other countries." He strongly suggested that every organization, such as funds and state corporations, should do their job, and then the whole performance will be much stronger.

He explained this was supported by President Putin, with his aim to improve the life quality of Russian people.

The change is ongoing in Russia, as Dmitriev said, "lots of people in state companies are changing, president is more and more clear on the need to have more investments, so minister of finance will put more money into investment, and we see actual transformation, it doesn't come overnight, but it is very serious and important."

To have a better transformation, Dmitriev suggested that Russia should learn from China, "China has been very successful in driving its transformation, and Russia has to learn from China's experience, from China's growth, from China's infrastructure investment, and from China's technology commitment."

World Insight with Tian Wei is a 45-minute global affairs and debate show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 10:15 p.m. BJT (1415GMT), with rebroadcasts at 4:15 a.m. BJT (2015GMT).