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Yokohama’s plan to invest in Lipetsk Region points to region’s appeal

This opinion was expressed by head of the regional administration Oleg Korolyov, commenting on a Sunday article in the newspaper Nikkei

LIPETSK, September 11 (Itar-Tass) — Plans of the major Japanese producer of car tyres Yokohama Gomu to invest additionally nearly 130 million US dollars to build its factory in the Lipetsk Region “point to growing investment appeal of the region”.

This opinion was expressed to Itar-Tass by head of the regional administration Oleg Korolyov, commenting on a Sunday article in the newspaper Nikkei, the leading Japanese business newspaper.

According to the governor, the Nikkei article that Yokohama Gomu has a great interest in boosting its share in the Russian market “is not accidental”. The corner-stone-laying ceremony for a future factory to produce car tyres by the Japanese firm took place some 18 months ago. The regional administration “offered the most favoured regime to foreign investors”.

When the federal government took a decision to create here a special economic zone “Lipetsk”, “this support increased”, Korolyov noted.

In the meantime, a rush of interest in the region was registered, since apart from the federal economic zone, local authorities created several regional ones. Besides, the leadership in the Russian rating of investment appeal which was registered in the region early in 2011, according to Korolyov, “is inversely proportional to the level of corruption in the region, since where there is a high investment rating, the threshold of corruption is low”.

As a result, this “already helped to form here a portfolio of investments to a sum of over 55 billion rubles, which expressed 19 resident companies”, the head of the regional administration said. “The international component” of new production facilities includes, apart from Japanese companies, Belgian, German and Italian firms.

All in all, the “Lipetsk” special economic zone (SEZ) plans to lure 50 resident companies by 2016 with the volume of investments of over 150 billion rubles. It is expected that the above alone will help to create 14,000 new jobs at these enterprises.

Russia has 13 special economic zones, two of which are of industrial type, operating in the Lipetsk Region and Tatarstan. They grant investors tax, customs and administrative preferences, and they enjoy an easy-term regime of land tenure. Besides, investors are guaranteed from possible changes in Russian legislation on taxes and charges.

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