Zee Beam News

30.01.2006 MosNews - The head of Russia's Federal Agency for managing special economic zones, Yuri Zhdanov, held a number of negotiations with potential investors during the World Economic Forum which took place last week in Davos, Switzerland. Russian daily Kommersant reported on Monday, Jan. 30, that it is now expected that such companies as Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Sun and Unilever will become residents in Russia's special economic zones. The Russian delegation was able to hold negotiations with Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Sun, Unilever and machine-building concern Shindler. The government officials are convinced that as early as spring no less than a half of these companies will become residents of Russia's special economic zones. Yuri Zhdanov specified that the Davos negotiations will bring special economic zones no less than $100 million in additional investments in 2006. The head of the federal agency also noted that it is planned that special economic zones will provide investors with even more benefits than the current law on special economic zones allows. In particular it is expected that local authorities in the cities of Lipetsk, Elabuga and Tomsk will free zone residents from all local taxes not for five but for 10 years. Officials believe that this will help Russia attract long-term investment. The creation of special economic zones seems to have been a productive move by the Russian authorities. Last year Russia attracted $25 billion in direct foreign investment while its main competitor China — $60 billion. A large part of this discrepancy is conditioned by the fact that China already had numerous special economic zones. Now the Russian authorities have taken the same step and, according to official information, more than 30 Western companies have already expressed their readiness to set up operations. As MosNews reported in November 2005, it was decided that at the first stage of the program six special economic zones will be set up in Russia. Technical innovation areas will be set up in the towns of Zelenograd and Dubna in the Moscow region, in St. Petersburg and in the Siberian city of Tomsk, Economy Minister German Gref said. Central Russia's Lipetsk region and the Tatarstan Republic won the right to set up industrial production zones.