These reports have been provided courtesy of Kinross Gold Corporation.
Kinross Gold Corporation engaged the Centre for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR) of the New Economic School in Moscow to prepare a study on the above topic. This study was prompted by the focus placed on the importance for the Russian Government of the development of the Far East. As one of relatively few foreign direct investors in the Region, Kinross has had almost twenty years of experience with successful investments and is keen to see other international companies from the resource, manufacturing and services sectors, also invest in the Far East.
The report produced as part of the study is intended to answer some basic questions: what is the level of current FDI?; what do existing foreign investors see as the advantages and disadvantages if investing in the Far East?; how do local officials see the role of foreign direct investors and what do they believe must be done to encourage additional foreign direct investment?, etc. It is hoped that the results of the survey and the assessments of the Russian academics that have conducted considerable desk research would prove instructive and interesting for Russian policy-makers as they determine what to do to help accelerate the development of the Far East.
Member companies of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council (FIAC), and those of us involved in the Working Group on the Far East, have a common interest to provide advice and recommendations to the Russian Government on measures intended to improve the investment climate in Russia. In the past few weeks, some members of the Working Group have met twice with officials from the Ministry for the Development of the Far East, including with Minister Galushka. At the first meeting in October, in answer to his question: “what do foreign investors want and need from the Russian Government in order to invest in the Far East?”, we presented him with a copy of our report, hoping that the views of current investors and local officials reflected in the report would provide some answers. In the second meeting one of his colleagues requested more specific recommendations, and some of the companies present on the day have already submitted their recommendations.