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President Vladimir Putin: In previous years we discussed at length and in considerable detail the possibility of making the work of the EurAsEC financial structure more dynamic, but recently there has not been serious progress on this issue, unfortunately.

At the proposal of the Kazakhstan President, Russia and Kazakhstan agreed to create a Russian-Kazakhstan investment bank with a nominal capital of $1.5 billion. And this work has reached its final stage. Several days ago, at the Finance Ministry of the Russian Federation, there was a meeting at high expert level, and almost all documents, including the charter of this financial organisation, were agreed upon.

We agreed that the Russian-Kazakhstan investment bank would have its headquarters in Almaty. The head of this organisation will be a Russian citizen, and a branch will also be opened in Petersburg. This is not a closed organisation. It will be open to shareholders from other countries, above all members of the EurAsEC. It is proposed that it will work throughout all the post-Soviet area, but primarily it will provide for economic activity in the EurAsEC. We proceed from the assumption that by the end of the year, at the latest in December this year, this bank will be able to begin work.

I am informing you of this and offer you to familiarise yourself with the documents prepared by our experts, to determine in what time frame and in what volume you could join the work of this organisation.