Presentation of the Results of the Russian Regional Investment Climate Index
KEY OBSERVATIONS
Indicators in the national rating have grown for most regions of the Russian Federation
“The growth of indicators in the 2018 rating has been colossal. This is the result of planned, systematic work carried out at all levels of government. Interdepartmental interaction, which is traditionally considered the weak point of all large-scale programmes and reforms, has come together and this is the effect. Regional heads have played a special role, of course.” – Svetlana Chupsheva, Chief Executive Officer, Agency for Strategic Initiatives.
“There has been a dramatic upturn in the work of regional teams. Out of 85 federal regions, the business has only noted a decline in 7 of them. It follows that the design of the target models applied this year for the first time has been effective. The target model is a concentration of good practices that have already been implemented somewhere in the existing regulatory environment.” – Andrei Belousov, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
“Regional project offices, together with federal agencies, have managed to do something really incredible: the actual result for certain procedures across the country has on average surpassed the target. For example, the period for obtaining a building permit for a model site is now 105 days, while the target value was 129.” – Svetlana Chupsheva.
Successful development of a region is the result of cooperation between business and government
“Success is in those places where business is involved in the evaluation of the work of institutions and procedures, knows that it is involved there, and knows that the results of its participation will affect the evaluation of the work of specific representatives of government bodies and officials.” – Andrei Belousov.
“A business needs feedback; we are sufficiently democratic to hold meetings, often on-site. The business determines how efficiently tools and mechanisms are operating today in the region.” – Vyacheslav Shport, Governor of Khabarovsk Territory.
“The Governor [of Sakhalin Region] made the following decision: he asked the ASI to send him a business mission. A big business mission arrived and worked on the island with regional authorities, municipalities, and businessmen for several days. People understood what they wanted, what gave them additional opportunities, and this was probably a factor in improving the situation.” – Andrey Sharonov, President, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.
“In order to enter the top ten and gain a foothold there, we need a strong, well-equipped team of managers at all levels. The greatest successes occur where there is a team like that and the tools for managing change: investment advice, export support centres, etc.” – Alexey Repik, Co-Chairman of Business Russia.
PROBLEMS
Ineffective system of supervision and control over business
“In our surveys and studies we’ve recorded that approximately 40% of companies consider the system of supervision and control ineffective. We understand that the issue is quite sensitive, but the situation needs to be addressed.” – Alexander Shokhin, Head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
“There is a number of problems: administrative barriers, excessive pressure on business, additional checks, and we have been talking about this for the last several years, just passing the problem around,”– Vitaly Mutko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Inadequate infrastructure for business
“Respondents are dissatisfied with the workforce, and, in their opinion, the quality of telecommunications and highways is not up to standard. The President of the Russian Federation has pointed out the need to solve infrastructural problems.” – Svetlana Chupsheva.
“The most difficult thing for us, since we are not the richest region, is to build infrastructure for business: technoparks, industrial parks, business incubators – these things require investment. Today, the regions are feeling the squeeze from the Finance Ministry’s demands not to increase the debt burden, so it is difficult both to fulfil social obligations and to build up infrastructure.” – Andrei Nikitin, Governor of Novgorod Region.
Legislative imperfection
“We must somehow put a stop to the normative itch: we have an incredible amount of documents drowning business, and this affects the investment climate.” – Sergey Katyrin, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.
“We need to raise municipal teams, but when there are 320 municipalities in the territory and each has its own regulator, it’s not easy to do.” – Maxim Reshetnikov, Governor of Perm Region.
SOLUTIONS
Searching for new financing instruments
“Each region of the Russian Federation is looking for financial instruments to support small and medium-sized businesses. For more than 10 years we have been working with an instrument to subsidize the first instalment of leasing payments. When we go through a leasing operation, we understand that equipment is being purchased and, accordingly, small and medium-sized business is growing technologically.” – Vladimir Yakushev, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities.
Creating industrial parks
“Infrastructure is very important. [...] We turned to industrial parks. At the moment, 3 industrial parks covering a total area of more than 300 hectares have already been launched in the Tyumen region, and one is already almost full.” – Vladimir Yakushev.
“Those of us involved in town-planning policy have sought to reorganize industrial areas and develop commercial real estate to create jobs. We’re talking about offices, industrial parks, multifunctional centres. 15 million square meters of such estate have been built in Moscow over the last few years.” – Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow.
Information support for entrepreneurs and investors
“The most important next step is the Proven Business resource we launched this year. We developed it together with entrepreneurs: more than 5 thousand local entrepreneurs took part, and all 45 municipalities were involved. We took all the typical violations that could occur – more than 300 violations of 27 types – and gave recommendations on how to avoid them. The most important thing is that the website contains all the information necessary for an entrepreneur to work with each control and supervisory function and department.” – Rustam Minnikhanov, Head of the Republic of Tatarstan.
“We are developing institutions as centres for supporting export. And what has the result been? Export-oriented enterprises have doubled. There were 92, and now we have 195.” – Alexei Dumin, Governor of Tula Region.
“I think we need to introduce a kind of a concierge service in all the regions. When a resident from another region comes to us and opens a business, they have a lot of questions: where to take the children to school, to kindergarten, where to set up his/her spouse. We help them find an office and even housing, and we help find employment for family members.” – Anton Alikhanov, Governor of Kaliningrad Region.
“The region placed very badly in relation to pressure on business by the federal authorities, so we established a headquarters for the protection of entrepreneurs, which addressed issues related to requirements, including tax inspection, and we were able to achieve quite a bit.” – Oleg Kozhemyako, Governor of Sakhalin Region.
Reducing the number of inspections
“We have revised the list of control functions of regional significance and managed to find 10 control functions we could simply exclude from the list. When planning control and surveillance activities for 2018, the number of inspections was reduced by 16%.” – Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg.
“In cooperation with federal structures, we have established balance commissions that allow us to quickly establish relations and reduce the number of procedures required and the number of days spent with federal structures, such as the tax inspection, for example.” – Sergei Morozov, Governor of Ulyanovsk Region.
Changing legislation in the interest of investors
“It is very important how radically we have revised the legislation on investor support, reducing the threshold for investment support by 90%. We tried to make it possible not only for big investors, but also for your medium-sized investor, for any money that is invested in the region to receive support from us by means of benefits and additional administrative support.” – Andrey Nikitin.
Perfecting the process of training personnel for business
“The Czech Republic recounted how it had introduced the foundations of entrepreneurship to its public school education long ago, and after three years, the young people they were producing were the kind that wanted to engage in small business and open up small businesses. [...] We could introduce a class like this to the schools in our regions.” – Alexander Kalinin, President of OPORA Russia.
Improving the quality of life in the regions
“The general conditions of life in the region are beginning to influence the business climate: the quality of medicine, sports, recreation, etc. These things are becoming more important, and we must think about how to measure them all.” – Andrei Belousov.
More detailed information is available on the website of the Roscongress Foundation information and analytical system.
