25 May 2017, 00:12

St. Petersburg hopes for higher position in ASI rating as its economy is on rise

Last year, St. Petersburg rose from the 26th to 22nd place in the ASI rating

ST. PETERSBURG, May 25. /TASS/. St. Petersburg’s authorities have done much to improve the investment climate and hope for a higher place in the rating of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), which is traditionally made public at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), the city’s governor, Georgy Poltavchenko said in an interview with news agencies ahead of the SPIEF-2017.

Last year, St. Petersburg rose from the 26th to 22nd place in the ASI rating. "We are keeping a keen eye on this rating. Currently, St. Petersburg’s economy is obviously on the rise. So, any talks about degradation of the investment climate is excluded. Everything indicates that we are about improving our positions in the ASI rating," he said.

According to Poltavchenko, the city managed to raise a record-breaking sum of investments - 582 billion rubles (10.32 billion U.S. dollars) into capital stock. The growth was 12.4% in comparable prices. More to it, the city has done much to remove administrative barriers, which is also reckoned with in the rating.

"We worked on problem issues together with the business community to see the situation in key areas, to understand what is to be done to achieve federally-set targets," the governor said, adding that twelve roadmaps have been elaborated.

He also said that the city has opened three new consultation platforms for investors, builders and businessmen. "We have considerably overhauled our investment and business portals," said, adding that immediate plans are to improve regulatory and oversight activities, expand easy-term lending to small and medium businesses, to improve feedback with businessmen, first of all, on issues of the implementation of investment projects.

St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2017) will be held from June 1 through 3 under the slogan Achieving a New Balance in the Global Economic Arena.

TASS is the forum’s general information partners and official photo host agency. Apart from that, the agency is an operator of the forum’s presentation zone.

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