Decisions determining the direction of the long-term investment policy of JSC “Russian Railways“’ were made at meetings with the participation of the Head of the State and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

The agreement on investments in railway infrastructure linked to long-term commitments of consigners was signed at the first meeting in Kemerovo. The outcomes of the meeting in Moscow in Riga railway station included the following decisions: firstly, priority is given to the government to determine the allocation of investments; and secondly, agreement on the basic principles for financing investment projects in the long term. The corresponding order of the Prime Minister was also issued.

In light of these decisions and the predicted transportation volumes, the General scheme of JSC “Russian Railways” railway network development for the period up to 2020 (hereinafter, the general scheme) was established. It was subsequently adopted at the meeting of the Scientific and Technical Board of JSC “Russian Railways”. A forecast for the transportation volume of certain types of freight was made on the basis of intra-and interindustrial balances of industry branches requiring large scale transportation. The data were used to determine the needs for infrastructure development and to forecast the long-term investment budget for JSC “Russian Railways”.

Internal procedures are being worked on to improve the transparency of planning, the developement of the investment program and the budgeting of the JSC “Russian Railways”, and to improve the control of the implementation of the investment budget.

In accordance with the principles of financing long-term investment projects the criteria for dividing the projects into groups has been determined:

• provide commercial effectiveness for JSC “Russian Railways”
• do not provide commercial effectiveness for JSC “Russian Railways”, but their implementation is reasonable in view of the multiplier effect for the country’s economy,
• do not provide commercial effectiveness for JSC “Russian Railways”, but have an economic value for a limited range of areas of economic activity.

The proposals of “Russian Railways” to fund sources for railway infrastructure development projects have been presented to the Government of the Russian Federation and the respective ministries.

Investment program and projects have been consistently considered at the meetings of collegial bodies related to investment activities: the Working Group Board of experts on investment projects, Expert counsel on investment projects, and the JSC “Russian Railways” Investment Committee.

The JSC “Russian Railways” investment program for the medium and long term has been approved by the Government.