Russia's Medvedev pledges rule of law to woo investment

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged on Saturday to reinforce the rule of law and called for more foreign investment as part of a Kremlin drive to make Russia the world's number five economy by 2020.

"Our task is to create absolutely independent modern courts that comply with the country's economic development level," Medvedev told more than 80 chief executives of major global companies at Russia's top annual business forum.

He also said that a recent law regulating foreign investment in strategic sectors was based on U.S. rules and should facilitate investment.

Muhtar Kent, the COO of Coca-Cola Co, told reporters after the closed meeting at the St Petersburg Economic Forum that foreign executives were impressed by Medvedev's willingness to have an open dialogue on topics of interest to investors.

Medvedev had stressed the need for Russia to become a more innovative economy, to be more energy-efficient and to invest in better education and science, Kent added.

Kent said the CEOs had raised two issues with Medvedev: the need for Russia to improve its creaking, mostly Soviet-era infrastructure to avoid bottlenecks in growth and the need for a more transparent, improved legal system.

Energy chief executives were very complimentary about a new law passed last month by Russia regulating foreign investment in strategic sectors of the economy because it set out for the first time clear and concise rules, he added.

The fate of BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, where the Western major is locked in a boardroom battle with Russian oligarch co-owners, was not raised at the meeting, Kent said.

(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Michael Stott)