MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's electric power sector needs 745 billion rubles (about $27.5 bln) in investment and the oil and gas sectors need up to $440 bln before 2010, a deputy industry and energy minister said Monday.
Andrei Dementyev told an annual investors' conference that the fuel and energy sector needed about $260-300 billion in investment, the gas sector $170-200 billion and the oil industry $230-240 billion by 2010, and that Russia had created an investment-friendly environment.
"Investment in Russia has long ceased to be something exotic," Dementyev said, adding that the lifting of the ring fence around the common stock of gas giant Gazprom and the decision by state-run oil corporation Rosneft to make an initial public offering had sent strong signals to investors worldwide.
Dementyev also said the electric power sector needed to raise about 100 billion rubles (about $3.7 billion) on capital markets before 2010 to boost investment.
He said power generating companies could invest about 260 billion rubles (about $9.6 billion) of their own funds into development by 2010, and additional share issues could bring in about 327 billion rubles (about $12.1 billion), while the ministry's investment guarantee mechanism is expected to yield another 58 billion rubles (about $2.1 billion).
Dementyev also said the government intended to invest about $10 billion in the aircraft-making industry before 2010 in partnership with private business.
