Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues. Let's begin this meeting of the Vnesheconombank Supervisory Board.

First, we need to approve the bank's operations report for 2009. And here I would like to emphasise a very important point: the bank spent considerable resources to implement anti-crisis measures, which were highly successful.

At the same time, VEB continued its work as the Bank for Development. Its investment loan portfolio increased by 77%, to 230 billion roubles. Its financial assistance made it possible to start 24 new projects in energy, transport, agriculture and several other sectors. VEB launched a 250-billion rouble programme to support mortgages, which allowed commercial banks to lower interest rates on mortgages. Sberbank president [German Gref] told me that Sberbank decided to cancel all bonuses and cut the average mortgage interest rate by 3%.

VEB provided considerable support, 40 billion roubles, to small and midsized businesses. Therefore I think that VEB's work overall can be described as successful.

In 2010, Vnesheconombank should continue to focus on preparing new investment projects, some of which we will discuss today.

For example, there have been proposals to provide a long-term loan to develop timber processing at the port of Vanino in the Khabarovsk Territory. To the best of my knowledge, the project's initiators finished building the first phase from the ground up in mid 2009. The second phase is to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

Vnesheconombank is preparing an 11 billion-rouble loan for the third phase of the project, which is expected to increase the facility's capacity and create 500 new jobs.

It should also be said that this investment in timber processing was not VEB's first investment in the region, or even in the port of Vanino: construction on a new coal terminal with a capacity of 12 million metric tonnes began in Vanino in 2009. The company SUEK received over 4.5 billion roubles for that project.

Meanwhile, Russian Railways, RZhD, is working extensively to modernise the railway line from Vanino to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. We recently held a meeting to discuss the project's implementation. One of the most important parts of this project is the reconstruction and renovation of the Kuznetsovsky Tunnel, built in 1945. The new line will allow the Baikal-Amur Mainline to be used to its full capacity.

It is clear that this comprehensive approach for developing land, infrastructure and natural resources is the most effective approach for the continual development of the Russian Far East.

Let me bring up one more transport project. Vnesheconombank will provide some of the financing for the acquisition of two ice-class tankers. These are modern vessels, which our transport companies need; they are designed to transport oil produced offshore in the Barents Sea.

The first tanker, Mikhail Ulyanov, has already been delivered to the client, Sovcomflot. The other tanker, Kirill Lavrov, has been finished and is to be delivered soon.

These are the first vessels of this class to be built in Russia. Their construction involved the use of cutting-edge technology and breakthrough innovations. In other words, VEB funding was used effectively to modernise technology in Russian industries, in this case shipbuilding, which will generate additional demand for innovation.

These are the projects we should focus on in the future.

Let's start the discussion.