OREANDA-NEWS. January 18, 2013. "The global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009 graphically demonstrated the shortcomings of the global economic system and the fragile economies of even the most developed countries. Last year clearly showed that the global economy remains unstable and in a prolonged systemic crisis, reported the press-centre of RZD.

Today, it would be an unforgivable mistake to ignore the lessons of history and make decisions just to gain short-term improvements, but which, even after a few years, will once again lead to a crisis in the global economy," said Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways.

Yakunin was speaking on 15 January 2013 in Vienna, where he took part in a panel discussion on "Russia and the CIS: Beyond Crisis" held during the annual forum of Euromoney, the financial publisher, on Central and Eastern Europe.

Russian Railways was one of the first Russian companies to forecast the onset of the crisis. The Company developed a range of measures in a timely manner in order to minimise its negative effects and was able to maintain a high level of social responsibility and had no need to resort to mass layoffs or wage cuts.

Yakunin said that in the present circumstances, Russia, like other countries, faced major problems in overcoming the crisis quickly and in creating the conditions for sustainable economic development by actively implementing innovative tools.

In the first instance, action should be aimed at stimulating growth in the most important sectors of the economy.

According to the head of Russian Railways, priority should be given to promoting investment and targeting investment in infrastructure, creating measures to enhance social responsibility and encouraging innovation.

The necessity of these measures has already been understood by the world’s leading economies. The communique at the end of the G20 summit in Mexico in summer 2012 stated that investment in infrastructure was a highly important precondition for sustainable economic growth and noted the continuing importance of public financing for infrastructure projects. Countries such as the U.S.A, China and Brazil are now seriously considering allocating additional funds to infrastructure.

"As president of Russian Railways, I would like to emphasise that we are willing to invest in the Russian economy. We are well aware of the need for investment capital to develop the infrastructure and projects which we need to implement and the benefits to the rail industry, our consumers and the state which will result," said Vladimir Yakunin.

Russian Railways has been investing heavily in infrastructure and rolling stock throughout its existence. In 2012, the Company boosted its investment programme by 481.6 billion roubles, an increase of almost 22% on 2011. Since 2004, Russian Railways has invested over 2.5 trillion roubles.

The Company has implemented a whole range of measures to develop the country’s railway infrastructure, including transportation facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which are now nearing completion, the electrification of lines on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the reconstruction of bridges and tunnels, including along a number of stretches on the Baikal-Amur Main Line, and the construction and reconstruction of major sorting stations and stations near ports. It has also purchased over 3,000 locomotives.

"Russia is actively involved in global developments, and one way or another, all the events in the global economy also affect our economy. We therefore need new tools to develop partnerships and, even more importantly, to find qualitatively new approaches to developing the global economic system," concluded Vladimir Yakunin.