MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian economics ministry has received 41 applications for Investment Fund co-financing of infrastructural projects, the head of the ministry's agency on special economic zones said Saturday.
The Investment Fund was set up in 2005 to develop major nationwide investment projects with joint public-private financing.
"Forty-one applications have arrived. We did not expect so many," Yury Zhdanov said. He said almost half of the applications had been received during the final hours and minutes before midnight, the deadline for applications.
Zhdanov, whose agency was instructed by the government to collect and analyze the applications, said 40% of the projects could not be accepted "on formal grounds," while 50% of them deserved "detailed analysis."
Among those who filed applications were TVEL, Russia's leading producer and supplier of nuclear fuel for power plants.
TVEL's vice president said May 13 that his corporation would apply for funding from the Investment Fund on two projects in Siberia worth over $400 million.
"We intend, before the end of the year, to submit an application to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry for financial resources from the Investment Fund on two of our projects, worth about $400 million," Stanislav Golovinsky said.
He said the first project was a uranium mining and enrichment combine in Khiakda in the Buryat Autonomous Area, worth an estimated $200 mln, and the second was an ore mining facility at the Priargun uranium ore-mining and processing factory that had about the same price tag.
Russian railroad monopoly Russian Railways also filed applications to organize a fast train service between St. Petersburg and Helsinki and to electrify two railroad sections.
Zhdanov said an investment commission would pick several projects in early June, and that in mid-June they would be considered and approved by a government commission. He said there would be several winners and the selection would be tough, but that unapproved projects could be dealt with later on, when they were improved.
The total cost of the projects submitted is over 1.3 trillion rubles ($48.2 billion), with 700 billion rubles ($25.9 billion) expected to be received from the Investment Fund. The projects are slated to be implemented within 3-5 years.
This year, the fund holds some 70 billion rubles ($2.6 billion). A total of 100 billion rubles ($3.7 billion) is planned to be pumped into the fund annually in 2007-2008.
