KEY CONCLUSIONS:
- Index of 2017 has shown that the overall investment climate in Russia is improving
“The investment climate is generally improving. The average index has increased by 5.3, which is quite a significant rise,” said Svetlana Chupsheva, Chief Executive Officer, Agency for Strategic Initiatives.
- Many regions have made significant progress, narrowing the gap with the leaders:
Top 10 regions: the Republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia, Moscow, the Tula, Kaluga, and Tyumen Regions, the Krasnodar Territory, the Voronezh, Moscow and Ulyanovsk Regions.
Fastest progress shown by: the Smolensk Region – 49 notches, the Khabarovsk Territory – 33 notches, the Republic of Ingushetia – 32 notches, the Kaliningrad Region – 32 notches, the Amur Region – 31 notches, the Republic of Adygea – 26 notches, the Saratov Region – 25 notches, and the Republic of Tyva – 19 notches.
- The Index confirms its effectiveness and will see further enhancement
“There is a positive correlation between the Index scores and investments per capita and the gross regional product. It means that there is work with people standing behind the figures,” said Andrei Belousov, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
“The project will keep going and see further fine-tuning. It will take some challenging efforts from governors and municipal teams,” said Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.
“Over the last 10 months, <...> the number of small and medium-sized enterprises has grown by 500,000. It would have been impossible without the excellent performance in the regions,” said Alexander Kalinin, President, All-Russian Non-Governmental Organisation of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Opora Russia.
CHALLENGES:
- The key challenge is the increasing administrative pressure on business
“The effect could have been greater, if the administrative pressure had not been rising by an average of over 30% across the country,” said Svetlana Chupsheva.
- Not all of the Russian regions are quick enough to enhance their regulatory framework in line with the federal laws
“Special investment contracts are one of the most popular business support tools. <...> However, some 40 regions have not yet put in place the relevant regulations,” said Alexander Shokhin, President, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).
- The economic transformation poses new challenges for the regions
“In the new economy, businesses would not be linked to the physical infrastructure. So the rating will change and be further adjusted primarily to reflect the quality of life. <...> The top performers in the rating would be the regions where we want to live,” said Alexey Repik, President, Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia).
SOLUTIONS:
- To reduce the number of business audits
“The focus should be on risky businesses that might have a negative impact on people,” said Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg, Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
- To introduce KPIs for federal authorities responsible for the country’s investment climate
“I am not sure whether it is possible to come up with a rating for public authorities influencing the investment climate, but it is obvious that they could have certain KPIs to align with. Many of them do have an impact on the investment climate, but they have never felt accountable for that, including in terms of ethics,” said Sergey Katyrin, President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.
- To invest in human capital
“Last year, we put a lot of effort in the implementation of educational programmes, <...> a lot of work was done to improve the infrastructure and enhance cooperation with the municipal authorities,” said Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan.
“One rouble in three is spent on education. We have never regarded this spending as expenses; instead, we view it as our investment,” said Mikhail Ignatiev, Head of the Chuvash Republic.
- To create a favourable environment for regional SMEs
“Last year’s breakthroughs included the two-fold increase in the number of government contracts awarded to small businesses and the explosive expansion of tech parks (in addition to the four government-funded R&D facilities; there are now 30 technology parks that provide tens of thousands of jobs for people spearheading the innovation,” said Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow.