WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a new report examining the overall capacity of Russia to support a long-term world-class infrastructure "build," – which is critical to the country's long-term competitiveness and its modernization – global infrastructure expert Norman Anderson concludes that Russia should be one of the largest and most dynamic infrastructure markets in the world over the next fifteen years.  Anderson, a noted international authority on infrastructure, is President and CEO of CG/LA Infrastructure, a strategic advisory firm dedicated to the identification, structuring and financing of strategic infrastructure projects around the world.

According to the U.S.-Russia Business Council, which commissioned Anderson's report, government and private sector estimates that the amount of infrastructure investment needed in Russia – just in the next decade – range from US$830 billion to US$1 trillion.  "It goes without saying that this will be a tremendous undertaking that will require the close cooperation of the public and private sectors," says U.S.-Russia Business Council President and CEO Ed Verona.

"Russia possesses enormous potential and some of the essential building blocks for a strong infrastructure market, but it has not yet presented a commanding vision to provide direction and organization for a sustained initiative necessary to transform the country's competitiveness," notes Anderson.  

Presenting his findings at the U.S.-Russia Business Council (USRBC) on Monday, Anderson suggested that concerns about whether Russia is "serious" about infrastructure development are misplaced.  "Getting the model right and focusing on the right projects" is the challenge.  Anderson's report delves into Russia's infrastructure environment and builds recommendations from a diagnostic of strengths and weaknesses using a proprietary model to assess the capacity for infrastructure creation and project feasibility.

USRBC's Ed Verona noted that the USRBC has been highlighting the issue of infrastructure development for several years in small discussions and panels, but that "the time is right to begin a major push now" on this fundamental pillar of President Medvedev's government program as Russia emerges from the economic crisis.

Identifying Russia's priority infrastructure projects in Russia will be the focus of an upcoming conference in Moscow, organized jointly by Anderson's CG/LA Infrastructure and the U.S.-Russia Business Council.  This catalytic opportunity for Russian competitiveness will have a unique, dynamic and interactive format to allow project decision-makers to present the top 50 strategic infrastructure projects in Russia to global executives and leaders from the engineering and construction, equipment and technology, finance and public policy sectors.  

For more information about the Russia Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum, which will take place from May 11-13, 2010, at the Marriott Grand Moscow, please go to www.usrbc.org/activities/specialevents.

A roll-out of the USRBC-CG/LA Report, Russia's Infrastructure at a Crossroads: The Key to Modernization, is planned in Moscow on Tuesday, March 23.  For more information, please go to www.usrbc.org/activities/calendar/event/1971.  

The U.S.-Russia Business Council (www.usrbc.org) is a Washington-based association representing approximately 250 companies, among them some of the leading firms in the U.S., Russia and Europe. Founded in 1993, its primary mission is to promote trade and investment between the United States and Russia.

SOURCE U.S.-Russia Business Council

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