Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called on new Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to improve the business environment in the capital.
"This is a very important task, and unfortunately there are factors that have hampered business activities [in Moscow]," the president said.
"Moscow is not only the political capital of our country, but the centre of its business life. It is no coincidence that we have decided that Moscow will be the financial centre of our country," he went on. "And if this works out - and we are working toward this now - the financial centre of Eurasia."
"We need to do everything possible to improve the business climate in Moscow," he stressed.
He also called on the mayor to raise living standards.
"The new mayor's duty will be not only to maintain the standards that have been reached, but also to raise the living standards of Muscovites and all those who come to our capital to work and live," Medvedev said in his speech during Sobyanin's inauguration ceremony at the Moscow City Hall.
Sobyanin, a Putin loyalist who was appointed the head of the presidential administration in 2005 and served as deputy prime minister and government chief of staff after his boss became prime minister in May 2008, was confirmed as mayor by the Moscow City Duma on Thursday.
Thirty-two lawmakers of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party voted on Thursday to appoint Sobyanin for the city's top position. Two Communist lawmakers were against, and another one was absent from the session.
MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti)
