26 April 2004 03:49
Daily Headline News for April 26, 2004
The following is a digest of headline news as of 5:30 p.m. on April 26, 2004: RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT DRAFTS TAX, SOCIAL
BILLS
The Russian government has nearly completed drafting of numerous tax and social reform bills, Deputy Prime Minister
Alexander Zhukov told a meeting between the President Vladimir Putin and Cabinet members of Monday. Following the early
May holidays, the bills, along with others amending the pension system and relating to social guarantees to citizens,
will be sent to the State Duma, Zhukov said.
The State Duma has passed some of the bills, in particular one that increases export duties and the mining tax, in
three readings, he said. The export duty and mining tax law will take effect on the day of its signing by the president.
The increased revenue will be used to reduce the uniform social tax and other taxes at a smoother rate, which will be
discussed by the government shortly, he said. RAO UES NET PROFIT TO SOAR 69% IN 2004
Total are rumors, Sibneft PR Director Alexei Firsov told
Interfax. Firsov also said that Sibneft never comments on
RAO Unified Energy Systems of Russia (RAO UES), the national electricity utility, expects net profits to soar 69%
this year compared with 2003, Yakov Urinson, a deputy CEO, told a conference in Moscow. Urinson said the company's
regional power companies would have net profit of 10.2 billion rubles and federal power stations 1.6 billion rubles.
He said Tyumenenergo, Mosenergo, Permenergo, Lenenergo and Vologdaenergo would make the biggest contribution to net
profits with a planned total of 6.2 billion rubles this year. Urinson said eight energos were running at a loss at
present. SIBNEFT SAYS REPORTS OF TOTAL DEAL ARE RUMORS
Russian oil company Sibneft has announced that reports of a possible sale of part of the company's shares to
French oil major
Monday. He said that the construction of the pipeline was
discussed during a current visit by a Chinese delegation to
negotiations and do not confirm that they are underway until transactions have been completed.
Earlier the Financial Times, quoting an unnamed source, said that Total has received preliminary agreement from the
Russian authorities to acquire 25% of shares in Sibneft. DECISION ON RUSSIA-CHINA PIPELINE MAY BE REACHED IN
SEPTEMBER
A decision on the construction of an oil pipeline from Russia to China may be reached in September, when Chinese
State Council Premier Wen Jiabao visits Russia for one of his regular meetings with the Russian prime minister, Russian
Ambassador to China Igor Rogachev said at a press conference in Interfax on
Russia, but not in detail.
The construction of the Angarsk-Nakhodka pipeline with a branch to Daqing in China will create a route to export
Russian oil to the Asia- Pacific region and will make it possible to supply 30 million tonnes of oil per annum to China
and 50 million tonnes to the port of Nakhodka. RUSSIA BOOSTS AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION 23.9% IN Q1
Russia increased automobile production by 23.9% to 320,949 vehicles in the first quarter of 2004 as compared to the
same period last year, ASM Holding, which analyzes the performance of the automobile manufacturing industry in Russia
and the CIS, told Interfax.
In particular, Russia increased its car production by 27.5% to 254,747 in January-March 2004, ASM Holding said.
KUDRIN DISCUSSES OIL PRICES IN U.S.
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin met with U.S. Finance Secretary John Snow and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan in Washington on Sunday to discuss oil prices, methods for their forecasting, analysis and calculation, as
well as their impact on the U.S. and Russian economies.
Kudrin said that Greenspan spoke in detail about U.S. economic growth and inflation. Both countries' finance
ministers also discussed increased cooperation between Russian and U.S. financial investigators and the U.S. supported a
Russian initiative to establish an organization to fight money laundering in Central Asia. RUSSIAN ELECTION OFFICIAL
INVITED TO U.S. PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
Russian Central Elections Commission Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov has been invited to join an observer mission of
the Association of Election Organizers from Central and Eastern Europe at the upcoming American presidential
elections.
Veshnyakov said the American presidential elections in November will be of great interest to international observers.
Veshnyakov also said that during the monitoring, he plans to study any innovations his American colleagues apply in the
voting.
"We intend to study everything positive with an eye on possible application at home. We should also take into
account all the negative things so as not to repeat other people's mistakes," he said. MOSCOW WANTS U.S.
EMBASSY TO PAY $9 MILLION IN RENT DEBT
Russia is insisting that the U.S. pay its $9 million debt for renting the Spaso-House ambassador residence in Moscow,
head of the Foreign Ministry's Main Department for Servicing the Diplomatic Corps Ivan Sergeyev told Interfax on
Monday.
The U.S. embassy is still making payments based on an old agreement and only pays 72 rubles and 50 kopecks (about
$2.50) for the whole building a year. Russia always returns the transfers, Sergeyev said.
U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow told Interfax said the embassy is ready for negotiations to bring the Spaso-House
rent into compliance with the actual prices on the Russian real estate market. KREMLIN ADVISER BACKS IMF'S RUSSIAN
ECONOMIC GROWTH FORECAST
Russian presidential economic adviser Andrei Illarionov on Saturday described as "reasonable" an
International Monetary Fund forecast for 6% economic growth in Russia in 2004. Illarionov told reporters in Washington
that gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2004 was 8% up on that for the same period in 2003.
He also expressed support for IMF advice that Russia tighten its monetary policy to keep inflation in 2004 within
10%. ILLARIONOV SAYS RUSSIA'S OIL EXPORT GROWTH STABILIZES OIL PRICES
He said that Eurobonds were issued for $1.36 billion in
December 2002 to restructure the first tranche of Soviet
By increasing its oil exports Russia is gaining additional earnings and helping to stabilize oil prices on the world
market, presidential economic advisor Andrei Illarionov told journalists in Washington, where the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank are holding their spring session.
He said that Russian oil companies have been increasing oil production over the past five years, and Russia has
become the world's absolute leader in the rate of growth in oil production. MINFIN SUGGESTS RAISING EUROBOND ISSUE
TO $2.5BLN
The Russian Finance Ministry submitted a draft resolution last week to the Cabinet on increasing the issue of
Eurobonds to restructure Soviet-era commercial debt from $2 billion to $2.5 billion, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei
Kolotukhin told Interfax.
commercial debt. The remaining debt runs to $850 million, and Eurobonds for about $900 million will have to be issued
to settle it. EBRD LENENERGO CREDIT TO BE PAID BACK IN FULL
A credit of 40 million euros provided to Russian power utility Lenenergo by the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development has to be paid back in full, Lenenergo General Director Andrei Likhachev said.
He said that the board of directors of Unified Energy Systems of Russia agreed to transfer Lenenergo core property -
Svetogorsk and Lesogorsk hydroelectric plants - to the EBRD as collateral for a credit to finance the construction of
Thermal Power Plant-5. RUSSIA'S UES TO BUY ELECTRICITY ASSETS IN POLAND
Russian national electricity company UES announced a plan on Saturday to buy electricity assets in Poland. However,
UES chief executive Anatoly Chubais, who made the announcement, declined to name any of the prospective facilities to be
purchased.
UES made its first foreign acquisition in 2003 with the purchase of power facilities in Georgia from the U.S.
corporation AES.
UES also acquired assets in Armenia, is seeking to buy into power distribution companies in Ukraine, has put in a bid
for the Slovak company Slovenske Elektrarne, and plans projects in the Baltic countries. Its bids to buy Moldovan and
Bulgarian facilities have been unsuccessful, however. CIS AND BALTICS UKRAINE HOPE FOR MORE U.S. SUPPORT IN ITS
ASCENSION TO WTO
Kyiv expects the United States to provide more vigorous support for Ukraine's bid to join the World Trade
Organization, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich said in Kyiv on Monday at a meeting with Stephen Pifer,
Assistant Deputy Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia.
Ukraine is prepared to share in the postwar rebuilding of Iraq, Yanukovich said.
Pifer praised Ukraine's economic advances, saying that "the economic growth shown by Ukraine reflects the
economic reforms." He thanked Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. government for the country's decision to send
troops to Iraq. KAZAKHSTAN, CHINA MAY FORMALIZE OIL PIPELINE PLAN IN MAY
A 1997 plan to construct a pipeline that would carry oil from Kazakhstan to China may be formalized definitively next
month, Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abuseitov told the "Caspian and Central Asia" session of
the Third Eurasian Media Forum in Almaty.
The pipeline, which is to carry a minimum of 20 million tonnes of oil a year, would be about 3,000 kilometers long
and cost about $3 billion to construct. Kazakhstan and China reached a fundamental agreement on the project in 1997.
[Interfax] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
