On May 19-20, 2002 Annual meeting and Sitting of board of Governors of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was held in Bucharest. V.V. Vysokov - President of OJSC Commer-cial bank "Center-Invest", Dr. of economical sciences, professor - entered the membership of delegation of the Russian Federa-tion. Statement of V.V. Vysokov in the course of the Russian Federation presentation at Annual meeting of EBRD is published below:
"Ladies and gentlemen!
I'm glad to state that EBRD in its policy began to place higher emphasis on not only Russia as a whole, but Russian re-gions also. It is especially important as the situation in dif-ferent regions could significantly vary from average Russian indicators.
By the way the growth rates of Rostov regional economy made 30% per annum.
The reason for and factor of such growth could be appreci-ated in different ways: low basis of computation, import substi-tution, favorable conditions of the markets, industrial struc-ture, etc. But in our opinion the main reason is people's be-lieve in reforms and their awareness of own responsibility for success of these reforms. Responsibility of a banker shows it-self in the qualitative changes of borrowers: they have become real owners of their enterprises, they are interested in devel-opment of the business, repayment of loans, they have got posi-tive experience of funding of current capital, and they are aware of that forthcoming development, market expansion, goods production of high quality depends on renewal of equipment and production. Therefore demand for loans of $1-5 mln. for invest-ment projects has significantly risen. It's important for Rus-sian and Western bankers, international financial organizations to join their efforts for widening of financial instruments range to meet demand for investment loans.
At present many of medium enterprises are the former small enterprises having been starting their business 5-10 years ago in severe school of Russian reforms. The new wave of small busi-ness growth in Rostov region requires not less than $200 mln. to satisfy the excessive solvent demand of population. Reaching of developed country's level in equipping of small business should require the amount over $3 bln. The credit portfolio of Center-Invest Bank for small business comes to $7 mln.
In order to decrease of credit risks Center-Invest Bank cre-ated infrastructure providing complete complex of services for maintenance of investment projects: consulting and audit, leas-ing, insurance, guard companies, Center-Internet. This infra-structure also enables to decrease costs per client for services of each type.
In order to decrease the risks of our foreign partners Cen-ter-Invest Bank having been already audited according to inter-national standards of financial reporting for 6 years. Compara-tive data obviously displays that good operation of the bank doesn't depend on reporting standards. I'd like to emphasis es-pecially that the rumors about bad work of Russian banks are significantly exaggerated. They are spread usually by the manag-ers of foreign companies failed in Russia.
The project of EBRD's interest in Center-Invest Bank's capi-tal was worked out for reduction of risks and facilitating Euro-pean firms to participate in the new industrialization of Rostov regional small and medium enterprises. On the threshold of EBRD's annual meeting Center-Invest Bank presented to EBRD audi-tors report on the year 2001 conducted according to IAS. And within short period of time reply from EBRD with the principles of cooperation was received. Thus, there was started practical phase of the project examination.
Center-Invest Bank counts on increase of its credit portfo-lio to $100 mln. towards the year 2006 without contributions from EBRD. EBRD's participation in Center-Invest Bank's author-ized capital should increase the volume of outstanding loans to $450 mln. In that way opportunities of European firms to take part in the new industrialization of Rostov regional small and medium enterprises increases by 4.5 times. Rostov reforms could be studied, criticized or discussed, but I recommend strongly to have the feeling of deep satisfaction from direct participation.