Developing nations were the key drivers of growth in international trade for 2011, in spite of the volatility caused by the international financial crisis, according to a report launched last week at the EBRD’s Trade Finance Forum in London. The Forum was attended by 250 trade finance professionals from major global market players. The report “Rethinking Trade and Finance” by the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce, with contributions from the EBRD and other institutions, notes that despite a year of upheavals, annual trade volume growth for 2011 was 6.6 per cent, slightly above forecasts by the World Trade Organization.

The EBRD is providing long-term financing to support restructuring, modernisation and expansion of a sanitary ware plant located in Syzran, Samara Region, Russia. The plant, Syzranskaya Keramika, needs improvements to benefit from the fast-growing demand for sanitary ware in Russia. This deal will also promote foreign investment in Russia's regions, which remain underserved by foreign capital and cross-border investment in general.

The Henry Jackson Societyhas announced the launch of a new initiative - the Henry Jackson Initiative for Inclusive Capitalism (HJI) - to provide a platform for thought leadership, policy recommendation and the promotion of business initiatives aimed at extending the benefits of capitalism to a broader set of stakeholders and society at large.

The HJI - guided by a trans-Atlantic, non-partisan task force of business, policy and academic leaders including Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO of EL Rothschild, and Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company - maintains that capitalism is the most powerful economic system that exists for lifting people out of poverty and building cohesive societies, but that it must more effectively serve long term value creation and the needs of the many, not short term gain and the needs of the few.

"The challenges we see in the system are neither irreparable nor inherent to capitalism itself," said Lady de Rothschild. "Capitalism, as it was conceived by Adam Smith, is not only the greatest engine for growth and prosperity that the world has ever known, but it is also a moral system, one where free markets are constrained by common values and a shared future. We can, and should, uphold these values and ensure that the benefits of capitalism are felt by everybody, not just a select few."

To mark the launch of the HJI, the task force has convened leading CEOs, policymakers and academics for a breakfast discussion on capitalism, its future, and how businesses can foster a more inclusive system.

At the event, the HJI revealed the results of its first white paper, "Towards a More Inclusive Capitalism," which identified three areas in which work needs to be done to make "capitalism for everybody" and recognized a number of companies already working in these areas to improve the current situation.

By Pavel Gagarin

Despite the huge investment potential, Russia is still considered by international investors as a high-risk area. The on going eurozone crisis also affects the evaluation of the Russian market. Continuity of power, provided by the recent presidential election, can reassure investors to some extent, as can Russia’s planned entry into the WTO.

Russian Consolidated Budget’s Surplus Reaches $7.5bn In January-February Revenues of Russia’s consolidated budget in January-February 2012 amounted to RUR2.9474tn ($97.5bn, or €75.5bn) and expenses equalled RUR2.7215tn ($90bn, or €69.7bn), according to a financial statement posted on the Russian Treasury’s website. This means that the consolidated budget had a surplus of RUR225.9bn ($7.5bn, or €5.8bn) for the specified period. The federal budget had a deficit of RUR199.6bn in January-February.

The consolidated budget of Russianregions was executed with a surplus of RUR73.6bn. Revenues totalled RUR874.8bn and expenses RUR801.2bn. Budgets of state extra-budget funds were executed with a surplus of RUR319.2bn and of territorial state extra-budget funds with a surplus of RUR32.9bn. (FC Novosti)

FOREX CLUB, a leading online broker, has won the 'Best Dealing Room' award at the 2012 World Finance Foreign Exchange Awards. The honour comes as a result of voting by the magazine's 60,000 global readership. The awards, now in their fifth year, recognise industry leaders and institutions that represent the benchmark of success and best practice in foreign exchange.

Market leaders Mail.ru, Vkontakte and Yandex, together with a further 40 speakers and 400 guests, will debate Russia's digital future at the digital conference, DLD Moscow, taking place from 27-29 May 2012, and is being held in the Russian metropolis for the first time. Russia is one of the fastest growing and leading European digital markets, as demonstrated by the user numbers and the capitalisation of internet giants such as Mail.ru, Vkontakte and Yandex. Among the 40 speakers will be Dmitry Grishin (CEO, Mail.Ru Group), Pavel Durov (CEO, Vkontakte) and Arkady Volozh (CEO, Yandex). Additionally, entrepreneurs, creative minds and experts from the international DLD community, such as Italian designer Lapo Elkann, Matt Michelsen of Lady Gaga's littlemonsters.com or Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, will also be speaking at the conference.

The international airport of Sheremetyevo has summarized the May holiday flight program, which is traditionally a period of intense streams of air-passengers to and from vacation places. According to preliminary results, from April 25 till May 9 of 2012 Sheremetyevo airport served 1 million 040 thousand passengers, which is 14.2% more than the figure of the last year.

The passenger traffic on international airlines increased during the period of the May vacation by 15.2% and constituted 689.5 thousand people, on internal airlines it increased by 12.2% to 350.4 thousand passengers.

Steve Shor, Founder of the National Children's Leukemia Foundation (NCLF), a leading non-profit organization in the United States, and National Program Director Dr. Sara Gardin will address an entire delegation of prominent executives at Frost & Sullivan’s inaugural launch of its premier global congress on Growth, Innovation and Leadership – GIL 2012: Russia.  During the address, a monumental discovery in cancer research will be presented as announced for the first time on 9 May 2012 in London, UK.

The Henry Jackson Societyhas announced the launch of a new initiative - the Henry Jackson Initiative for Inclusive Capitalism (HJI) - to provide a platform for thought leadership, policy recommendation and the promotion of business initiatives aimed at extending the benefits of capitalism to a broader set of stakeholders and society at large.