The Ust-Luga Oil Joint Stock Co.
«Increasing the capacity of liquid cargo complex in the Ust Luga Commercial Port»
The LSR. Reinforced Concrete Joint Stock Co.
«Development of new reinforced concrete production facilities for producing concrete products in the Leningrad Region»
The Rosterminalugol Joint Stock Co.
"Increasing the capacity of coal terminal in the Ust Luga Commercial Port"

Letter of Support by Jean-Claude Isnard, Coordinator, Project TACIS/FD RUS/9504, (Отзыв экспертов проекта TACIS/FD RUS/9504)

We wish to present you some comments upon the various business plans you have prepared with your team, and by the way, we would thank you for the close working cooperation which is undergoing between the Business Center and our Tacis "Farm Service Project".

First point to be emphasized: the ways Business Center and Tacis projects are preparing business plan are very similar, and the general contents and reports organization cover the very same fields.

Second aspect to be pointed out: as far as assessed upon analyzing the 4 business plans we have had the opportunity to appraise, works done had been deeply detailed, either on a technical point of view or on a financial point of view. Dealing with the later aspect, costs setting up, profitability and sensitivity analysis have been assessed the same way any western firms would have done.

We understand, by experience, that it is not easy to find a medium way between the objectives and ideas of the private entrepreneur, which are often not realistic and the consultants points of view, and we appreciate Business Center pragmatic approach.

Of course, the main bottleneck is the general financial institution reluctancy of financing agricultural projects, as relevant and achieved the business plans are prepared. We are facing the same constraints.

That is why we think it would be useful to organize, on a jointed basis, a seminar where administration officials, financial institutions representatives and some farmers will be part of, in order to assess, as far as possible, what could be efficient articulations between financial institutions and agricultural borrowers.

Any way and whatever the results of such a seminar, we hope that the very professional works done by the Business Center will find a positive impact to improve agricultural producers economic situation.

Jean-Claude Isnard, Coordinator, project TACIS/FD RUS/9504