The most promising projects are based on cooperation in the sphere of power supply, in particular Russia is ready to offer support for construction of nuclear power plants of new generation. Another highlight is cooperative projects in the sphere of transport, such as, for example, construction of the modern railroads. More information on the summit can be found here.

In general the road map provides for cooperation and development in such spheres as power industry, transport and IT. Moreover, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced his intentions to create a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) and ASEAN to allow effective and licit access of domestic goods to Asian market and to improve regional economic integration.

Primarily the bill is aimed at further development of the Far East regions and involvement of the Asian companies as investors. The regions will be allowed to reduce income tax rate for investors from 18 to 10 percent in exchange for investments of 50 million RUR in three years.

Please note that initially the bill has been rejected due to a technical mistake in calculations. However the need to attract investments has been growing proportionally to the decrease of European investments in domestic economy. Thus, the Council of Federation hopes that easing tax burden will favorably affect investment climate throughout the country, and will send positive message to the investors interested in developing capital-intensive facilities.

According to the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, in 2016 the GDP will decrease by 1,3-1,5%, in 2017 the economy growth will be close to zero, and in 2018 positive rate of GDP growth is expected. However, this development forecast is directly related to oil prices and more negative scenario is possible if oil prices continue to fall.

Nevertheless, Russian economy is responding positively to such tendencies as import substitution and diversification of export nonrelated to raw materials. Annual drops in consumption and investments are slowing down, unemployment remains low. In general, economic activity dynamics in Russia shows recovery despite deterioration of external circumstances.

The official document containing additional 14 companies authorised to employ Turkish citizens was signed by the Prime Minister and published on the National Legal Internet portal.

Be reminded that at the end of last year Russia has imposed economic sanctions on Turkey including in particular the ban to employ Turkish workers since January 1, 2016, as well as the ban or restriction on import of some Turkish goods.

The State Duma has passed in the first reading a bill proposing to ban hostels in premises of the apartment buildings. Authors of the bill refer to part 1 article 17 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation and article 228 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation according to which premises have to be used for the designated purpose a priori and not for commercial profit. Thus, if the bill is adopted, before rendering hotel services the apartment owners will have to reclassify its status to a non-residential premise as provided by article 22 of the Housing Code RF.

Please note that the main difference between hostels and regular hotels is relatively low price in hostels what makes them very popular among tourists and business travelers. However renting premises for hostels in commercial buildings deems this type of business unprofitable what consequently will considerably reduce the number of hostels or force the owners to go into hiding.