Russia needs to bolster the positive trend of foreign direct investment growth in Russia, Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

“In 2011, over $52 billion worth of direct investment came to Russia from abroad. By FDI dynamics, we have actually reached the pre-crisis 2007 level,” Putin said at a meeting of the government commission for foreign investment which he chaired for the last time as the country’s premier.

Foreign direct investment in Russia hit $55 billion in 2007.

The commission for foreign investment has examined over 140 requests from foreign investors in the four years of its work and approved 94 percent of them, Putin said.

“It was only in eight cases that requests were rejected on legitimate grounds,” Putin said, adding that none of them was challenged.

Russia’s strategic sectors of the economy have attracted over $33 billion in foreign direct investment, Putin said, adding that the Russian government needed to continue creating favorable conditions for investors prepared to work in sectors of strategic importance for Russia.

Putin said the anti-monopoly watchdog was preparing a package of amendments to simplify the procedures and cut the term for examining requests from foreign investors.

“These novations are designed to stimulate foreign business to implement new projects in the strategic sectors of the Russian economy,” he said.