Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for an acceleration of a project to create an international financial center in Moscow.
"The situation we have today can no longer be used as an excuse to continue not to deal with this issue," Medvedev said at an economic conference at the Kremlin, adding that after the economic crisis Russia had seen an increase in its abilities to create the centre.
The president considers it crucial to attract foreign experts and foreign companies with experience of such projects.
Representatives of major international financial institutions, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group, participated in the Kremlin meeting.
Medvedev also said that it was necessary to establish normal and favorable conditions for capital, the relevant tax and customs facilities, to ensure effective the judicial protection of property rights, to use modern models of risk insurance and to create an infrastructure for such center.
A Kremlin aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, said a project group under the presidential council for financial markets would oversee Russia's efforts to establish the center in Moscow.
The Russian authorities earlier intended to set up a managing company to deal with the establishment of the international financial center in the Russian capital.
The group will be headed by Alexander Voloshin, who worked as chief of presidential staff under Boris Yeltsin.
MOSCOW, April 20 (RIA Novosti)
