From November 6 to 11, Hong Kong hosted a tenth investment conference billed "Expansion of Capital: from National Economies to a Transnational Economy," organized by RBC.

The forum assembled some 200 businessmen and politicians from the largest countries of the Euro-Asian region. And it's not at random that the initiators picked Hong Kong. This largest financial center sets an excellent example of the skillful creation of a favorable business atmosphere. Income and wage taxation are low here (16 and 15 percent respectively), the British civil law system is in operation and the courts are renown for their independence.

Besides, the Hong Kong exchange provides advantageous conditions for companies entering the market. It's extremely important for Russian businessmen these days, taking the high inflation rate and the strengthening of the ruble inside the country into account. And it's not by chance that Russian business has already started to consider Hong Kong: experts estimate that the primary subscription to Gazprom's Eurobonds in September 2003, as well as to similar instruments of Nomos and MDM-Finance banks and NIKoil company, resulted in the share of Asian investors totaling from eight percent to 40 percent.

According to the General Director of the Moscow International Business Association (MIBA), Alexander Borisov, not only is Russian business looking for investors, it is also ready to invest considerable funds into promising foreign projects. MIBA possesses information about almost 300 projects by 111 Russian companies that have assets in 62 countries. "However, the number is actually three or four times as high," Borisov said. "Thanks to the positive economic situation over recent years and available financial resources, even second- or third-echelon companies have actively joined in purchasing foreign assets."

Russian companies are looking not only for attractive assets to invest into, but also for stability and convenient infrastructure alongside economic liberties which their own country lacks so much. According to Russian presidential advisor Andrey Illarionov, a setback in economic freedom can be observed currently in Russia and consequently, gross domestic product growth is slowing. In his opinion, the situation can be remedied singularly by minimizing government expenditure, a policy of demographic transparency as well as by the absence of legal constraints on Russian economic growth.

However, other speakers were on the whole more optimistic. State pension fund chairman Gennady Batanov asserted that Russia had resources of its own to help boost GDP growth. In his words, by 2005, pension accruals will have almost hit the milestone of three billion rubles. If growth rates are to be maintained for the future, over the first ten-year period that pension reform is in effect, the fund will gain about 25-30 billion rubles that can be appropriated to implement big investment projects. "The coming three to five years will be a decisive period for foreign investors: either they will venture entry into the Russian market or the Russian economy will proceed largely at the expense of its own resources. The market being taken up, it will be very difficult then to find a niche in it," Batanov cautioned foreigners.