Investors Club session at St. Petersburg Economic Forum
St. Petersburg, June 2009

Infrastructure is the governmental responsibility

The statement was made at the third Investorsэ Club meeting, which was held within XIII St. Petersburg international Economic Forum in June 2009. The main theme of the meeting was investment strategy into the real estate for cities revising their development stragegy.

The Investors Club session was attended by Maksim Sokolov, Chairman of Committee for Investment and Strategic Projects of St. Petersburg Administration; Alexander Olkhovsky, President of the Guild of Property Managers and Developers, Vice President of VTB; Vyacheslav Semenenko, Chairman of Committee for Construction; Shavkat Kary-Niyazov, President of Marine Facade Management Company; Lev Pukshansky, Vice-President of Marine Facade Management Company; Vyacheslav Glazychev, President of the National Academy of Design; Pavel Goncharov Director of PROEstate, International Forum on Real Estate Investment; Eduard Tektinsky, Chairman of Board of Directors and President of RBI Holding.

Alexander Olkhovsky, the discussion moderator, pointed out that nowadays authorities focus on the solution of urgent social problems, which is important, of course, but a responsive approach does not prepare cities and regions for future development. In particular, the cities do not offer well-prepared sites with adequate engineering and transport infrastructure to investors, do not identify ‘points of growth’ for development.

Participants of the meeting agreed that regional centers should develop the post-crisis development strategy supported by coherent investment policy, to implement new projects and stay competitive on the investment market of tomorrow.

Sergey Igonin commented that national economic growth will be sustainable only if every region takes efforts on its own development without relying on the general improvement of economic situation.

Maksim Sokolov confirmed that his committee will lobby for doubling St. Petersburg budget for projects on infrastructural preparation of development sites, also will focus attention on appropriate preparation of urban planning (engineering) documentation. St. Petersburg budget of 2009 allocated 27mln. rubles for the purpose, but after ‘budget corrections’ the sum was reduced to 20 mln rub.

“We will develop not only territories under St. Petersburg jurisdiction, but also those offered to private investors. Infrastructure is the governmental responsibility. The responsibility of any government is to create favorable conditions for business” said Maksim Sokolov.


Investors Club is a platform for meetings of Western and Russian investment funds and banks, CEOs of large development companies, regional authorities and institutional investors from major Russian cities, reputable experts and ambitious professionals 

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