Putin urges private sector investment in ports

According to the president: “The government should make sure that, as different businesses reach agreements amongst themselves, they feel confident of the state’s support and make full use of it to harmonise their relations.”

He stressed the need for the government to clearly identify those infrastructure facilities whose construction should be state funded (and also the amounts involved) and those that will be funded by private investors and under what conditions, with the caveat that it would be important to determine in advance how future those facilities would be used.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, capacity at Russian ports had decreased significantly as a large number of cargo handling facilities were lost. New facilities have been established in the Baltic, the North Sea, the Black Sea and in the Far East, boosting throughput by 25% compared with 1984. But more private investment is needed, which means putting in place predictable rules and conditions to minimise administrative and commercial risk.