MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Investments in the Murmansk Region's economy in 2024 were about 315 billion rubles ($3.8 billion) despite the sanctions, the region's Governor and Chairman of the State Council Commission on the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic Andrey Chibis said in an interview with TASS.
"Over recent six years only, as many as 1.5 trillion rubles ($18 billion) have been invested in the Murmansk Region," he said. "Last year, despite the sanctions and restrictions, another 315 billion rubles were attracted. Our regional product (GRP) doubled between 2019 and 2022. Additional money and investments create jobs and enable people to earn money."
Current investment projects in the Arctic are estimated at 35 trillion rubles ($417 billion), and, according to the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, investment projects account for 15% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Arctic economy, he added.
"For this work to proceed, the country has organized the world's largest free economic zone - the Capital of the Arctic advance-development territory that offers tax incentives, exemptions, and additional preferential regimes that have boosted the economic development. This is what promotes the Russian Arctic and the country," he said.
For Capital of the Arctic business residents, the Murmansk Region offers the following incentives: insurance premiums for newly created jobs - 7.6% for 10 years, income tax - 5% instead of 20% for the first five years, and 12% for the following five years, full exemption from property tax for the first five years, and from the land tax - for three years.