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Presentation of the Results of the Russian Regional Investment Climate Index

7 June 2019
Презентация результатов национального рейтинга состояния инвестиционного климата в регионах Российской Федерации

KEY CONCLUSIONS

Investment climate rating contributes to the development of regions

“Rating is an important affair as it is a business assessment when each region takes a kind of exam,” Vitaly Mutko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

“The ultimate goal of our joint work is to improve the business environment, create effective institutions, lay the groundwork, lift restrictions and barriers. We have a direct correlation for three years between the rating and the volume of investments in the regions. <...> The dynamics of improving the business environment for entrepreneurs in our country, regions, continue to grow. The pace is not as high as last year. Last year, the integral index showed a growth of 15.8 points, this year – 7.3 points, almost twice as slow, but 62 regions have been steadily improving for three years all their indicators in 45 specific rating rubrics,” Svetlana Chupsheva, General Director, Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI).

“Today’s results demonstrate a minimal difference within the group of leaders, it became noticeably denser; we again have heroes who made a leap, which is perhaps more important in terms of dynamics, and we have a lot of new members, governors and acting governors compared with the previous year,” Andrey Sharonov, President, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.

PROBLEMS

Administrative pressure remains high

“The first barrier is nothing less than a catastrophe, especially against the backdrop of the existing successes. It is administrative pressure, pressure from law enforcement and regulatory agencies,” Andrei Belousov, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.

“What are entrepreneurs complaining about? I am peddling stale news – for four years, regulatory and enforcement agencies procedures still raise eyebrows; the number of inspections is growing, this year by 10 per cent compared to last year,” Svetlana Chupsheva, General Director, Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI).

The ineptness of the existing methods of dealing with illegal business

“There are problems; we will intensify the fight against illegal business, I have spoken about this many times. We are perfectly fine dealing with a legal business as a state. They say that the illegal business is the Interior Ministry's affair or whoever. We are yet to create a real lever to combat illegal business,” Aisen Nikolayev, Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Database issues

“There are still quite a few ‘knots’ in the Crimea. Unfortunately, we do not have fully formed databases in various aspects, which often implies my participation in the manual control mode,” Sergei Aksyonov, Governor of the Republic of Crimea.


SOLUTIONS

Engaged dialogue between business and government to solve existing problems and promote corporate ethics

“Today, a new model of relations between government and business has emerged. We have never considered its core factors as growth promoting. I'm talking about openness, business equality, respect and simplicity of proceedings,” Andrei Belousov, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.

“The attitude towards the regions of the North Caucasus is changing due to our joint efforts. An investor is no longer cautious about bringing their funds to the North Caucasus. I’m saying this because more and more people are turning to the republic, and they’re ready to invest,” Vyacheslav Bitarov, Head of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.

“On the OPORA Russia platform, we asked the business what is wrong. The answers can be divided into three main categories: money, procedures, and the environment,” Stanislav Voskresensky, Governor of Ivanovo Region.

“We need to work on improving business ethics. Business people report that they are at odds over ways to operate,” Anatoly Artamonov, Governor of Kaluga Region.

Development of various forms of business support

“An entrepreneur must find a market, create the product that is in demand; we must teach them how to promote their product. We have a public platform, where we hold seminars and discover where a business can go with their product and how to get there,” Rustam Minnikhanov, Head of the Republic of Tatarstan.

“We have a pilot project, where every investor receives an assigned head of a development corporation, a line minister, a deputy governor. They synchronize daily, along with a defined road map, an action plan that the government must follow and meet the established deadlines,” Alexei Dyumin, Governor of Tula Region.

Consistent improvement of the investment climate

“For Moscow to improve the investment climate, something cannot just happen. Moscow is a towering mechanism with more than 3 trillion of investments in fixed assets, with cumulative investments that entail the next round of investments. Shortcutting it to become a leader is not going to work. Government and business are to come together and put in a lot of effort in it,” Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow Mayor.

“We have created a headquarters for improving the investment climate in the region, where almost all relevant departments are involved. We also have a competence centre for issuing approval documentation,” Dmitry Mironov, Governor of the Yaroslavl Region.

“Furthermore, we looked at the regulatory impact assessment, and here, according to the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, we managed to achieve success not only regionally but also at the municipal level,” Dmitry Azarov, Governor of Samara Region.

“We are not looking to expand the toolkit; we act in the areas mentioned today; first of all, it is the access to procurement,” Alexander Braverman, Member of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Management Board, SME Corporation.

Creating the export enhancing environment

“We shall not achieve advanced growth without developing exports, and the new rating should take into account the conditions for the development of foreign trade in the regions of the Russian Federation,” Alexey Repik, Chairman, Russian-Japanese Business Council; President, Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia); Chairman of the Board, Group R-Pharm.

Expert support

“With ASI’s expert support, we made a determined step towards improvement, analysed our shortcomings and mapped out the road to success,” Andrei Nikitin, Governor of Novgorod Region.

For more information, visit the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System at roscongress.org/en.