On 9 April, a delegation of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation (IBEC) headed by Chairman of the IBEC Board Denis Ivanov visited JINR. The IBEC delegation also included a Member of the Board from the Slovak Republic Peter Osvald, Director of the Customer Relations Department Alexandra Matveeva, CRD Director Evgeny Podzharov, and Director of the International Fund of Technological Development (IFTD) at IBEC Vadim Kulikov. During the visit, the IBEC representatives had a meeting with JINR leaders, as well as visited VBLHEP where they were acquainted with the implementation of the JINR flagship project “NICA Complex”.

JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov headed the JINR party at the meeting with the IBEC delegation. The JINR party was also represented by Vice-Director Vladimir Kekelidze, Chief Engineer Boris Gikal, heads of JINR offices and services.

The parties noted successful cooperation between JINR and IBEC, which began in 2019 and in the framework of which the Bank ensured the interaction of the Institute with the Frako-Term Sp. z o.o Polish company and the Vacuum Praha Czech company both supplying equipment for the NICA project.

Participants of the meeting considered IBEC proposals in the fields of lending, investment of funds, settlement and cash services, and investment financing of projects. The parties discussed opportunities for IBEC participation in the financial side of the implementation of the Institute’s projects in the Member States and JINR partner countries. Moreover, participants discussed the development of business relations of the Institute in joint with IBEC Member States, as well as financial and non-financial support of the programme of industrial repayment of contributions from the JINR Member States. The parties noted, in particular, holding seminars for JINR employees on the trade finance instruments, as well as the joint organization of business internships on the Institute’s basis, as promising fields of cooperation development. At the end of the meeting, the parties considered an opportunity to sign a framework agreement between JINR and IBEC in order to support the further development of mutually beneficial cooperation.

The IBEC representatives commented on the results of the visit and spoke about the activities of the International Bank of Economic Cooperation and the International Fund of Technological Development.

Denis Ivanov, Chairman of the IBEC Board, “First of all, I would like to congratulate your international Institute on the 65th anniversary. Our bank is a bit younger: this year, it turns 58. IBEC is an international financial organization with headquarters located in Moscow. Our charter is registered in the UN. All eight IBEC members – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Vietnam – are the JINR Member States. This is certainly one of the grounds for our cooperation. Moreover, our main tasks are to contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development of the IBEC Member States, to support innovative and science-driven projects. Now, we are going through the period of active development, which has started with IBEC restart in 2018.

We develop new areas, search for new clients, so the Institute is, of course, a strategic partner for us. It is very important that we already have the specifics of cooperation. We have consummated a deal with the Frako-Term Polish company that supplies a number of components for the construction of the NICA accelerator. We have also implemented several deals on guarantees for the return of advance payments. And now we have the second client that cooperates with JINR – the Czech company Vacuum Praha. I consider work with suppliers of high-tech equipment for the NICA project in the IBEC Member States as the main field of our joint activity.

A wide range of our banking products will provide JINR with additional reliability in its settlements with partners. Today, we have discussed other areas for cooperation as well. It was about the joint promotion of our organizations in the international arena, holding joint symposiums and conferences, training events, as well as substantive cooperation in the financial and banking sector. During the visit, we had a tour of the NICA collider under construction, saw unique production facilities.

We saw the logos of the companies we work with on the components of the collider, and this makes us feel proud that IBEC is involved in the implementation of such a significant scientific project.”

Vadim Kulikov, Director of the International Fund of Technological Development at IBEC, “The International Fund of Technological Development was established on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation by the Government of Russia. In fact, the Fund is an agreement between the Russian Government and IBEC. Thus, the Fund, just like JINR, has an international status. The Fund is very young, it is a little more than 100 days. The competence of IFTD, which amounts to 200 million euros, includes the transfer of technologies with a TRL readiness level 7, 8, 9 – from a prototype already functioning in real conditions to actually working ready-made systems. The Fund’s mandate includes financing the transfer of all types of intellectual property for the target technology (licenses, patents, knowhow), non-standard equipment necessary for the implementation of this technology, as well as engineering costs. The transfer is carried out in the interests of Russian applicants (recipients or donors of technologies) both to and from the Russian Federation, or as part of an international technology collaboration, but with the mandatory participation of partners from the Russian Federation. We provide equity investments, i.e. fixed assets investments, investing in one project from 2 to 10 million euros for a period of up to 10 years, while our share of participation can not exceed 49 %. It is important that we have no down restrictions, and our participation can be 5-10 %, which means that we can also participate in large technology transfer projects. We are working well with IBEC in this direction, which has much greater capabilities and can provide long-term loans to project companies. In addition, together with IBEC, we are working on financing programmes for buyers of technologies and technological products, including those outside the Russian Federation. This is an interesting new opportunity that opens up for Russian technology entrepreneurs. Therefore, we are very much waiting for applications from Dubna in our Fund, which can serve as an example for other science cities. Dubna has the most effective combination of science, innovation, and international cooperation. A lot of innovative technologies were born here. I should also note that the owner of the world’s largest company for the production of cyclotrons – the Belgian IBA – was trained in Dubna when was a young scientist. Now we are considering the possibility of organizing a joint project with this company in the Russian Federation with the involvement of JINR in the scientific and technological issues of the project. At the end of April, we are taking part in the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Special Economic Zone “Dubna”, with the leaders of which we are also meeting today. We expect to continue the dialogue with JINR on the sidelines of this event, during which a detailed presentation of the IFTD in IBEC and its opportunities is planned.”

Photos by Igor Lapenko