Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-16-Speech-4-114"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-09-16"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Financial crisis in Russia2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19990916.7.4-114"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-09-16-Speech-4-1152
lpv:speaker	lp:Gary Titley2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, I should like to begin by congratulating Commissioner Kinnock on his second term of office, which I am sure will be even more distinguished than his first. In relation to this particular problem, while we must not underestimate the damage that crime and organised crime can do to Western society. It is important where Russia is concerned that we try to get beyond the headlines. After all, to be blunt, crime is a fairly normal occurrence throughout the history of Russia. There is nothing new about it. We must not forget that Russia is potentially an extremely rich country. It has huge natural resources from gold to oil to agricultural land, and yet production has gone down 50% since 1989. The key problem is capital flight, whether it is legal capital flight or illegal capital flight. After all, the money which stays in Russia, even if it is on the black market, has an economic effect. Capital outflow is now about USD 25 billion a year and yet foreign investment is less than USD 3 billion and falling. To be quite honest, if the Russians are not prepared to invest in Russia what chance is there that anybody else will do so? We must not lose sight of the fact that any public money we can give is a mere drop in the ocean. The key to Russia’s salvation is private investment. It is that area that we ought to focus on. The answer lies within Russia itself. It has to implement proper economic reforms. We have to have a viable and fair taxation system. We have to guarantee modern democratic law and law enforcement. Industrialists have made it clear to us – for example, in the EU/Russia industrialist round table – that they want to invest in Russia. After all, given the potential, there is a killing to be made in Russia with the right investment at the right time. But repeatedly they all say the same thing: it is corruption that discourages them, investment conditions are very poor because there is no viable long-term tax system, laws are constantly changing , the infrastructure is poor and, most importantly, property rights, including intellectual property rights, are weak and confused. Those are the areas we have to focus on. I recognise that in the current atmosphere it is difficult to justify EU technical assistance but we must continue that process because of the importance Russia has for us for security reasons as well as economic reasons. I am glad to hear what Commissioner Kinnock says because it is important that we focus on a few areas: not only economic improvement but clearly, what we also have to aim at, improvements to civil society which will underpin economic reform and the social aspects. I would therefore like the new Commission – and I ask Commissioner Kinnock now – to make an overall evaluation of the efficiency of the TACIS programme and then to report back on how they will improve the programme for the year 2000 budget so we can have greater confidence when we vote in support of the TACIS programme."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Committee on Development and Cooperation (1999-07-22--2000-02-15)3 unknown; Labour Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; Conference of Delegation Chairs (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 chair; Delegation to the EU-Lithuania Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 member; PES (1999-07-20--2003-05-20)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Titley (PSE )."1

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