Regional development institutions meet in Kazan to discuss the initiative of establishing a national agency for attracting investments to the regions
A few days after the announcement of the Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev the decree on the establishing of the Russian agency for attracting investments to the regions (RAAIR), in the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan held a meeting with the participation of representatives of the institutions responsible for the attraction of investments in the regions of Russia.
The seminar was attended by representatives of the Investment Promotion Agencies and the Corporations of the Republic of Tatarstan, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Ryazan, Tambov regions, North Ossetia-Alania, the Republic of Bashkortostan, Sakha, Kamchatka and the Stavropol region. In Kazan was a meeting of the heads of regional development institutions from 22 Russian regions.
The seminar "Attracting investments: international best practice" was held by Tatarstan Investment Development Agency in cooperation with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) and the World Bank.
According to the ASI in July 2013 in Russia set up 55 regional investment promotion agencies and today is developing an idea of creating an interactive map of the regions investment opportunities resources. During the discussions, it was noted that one of the reasons that the regions do not get enougth foreign direct investment (FDI) is the lack of information of investors.
The practice of Tatarstan to attract investment, by the way, was named as the best in Russia. Speakers noted that the experience of Tatarstan is impressive - the region is far ahead from all regions of the country. In the presentation ASI used the data from the World Bank, according to which 1 dollar spent by the agency to attract investment, increase the flow of FDI to 189 dollars. These data were used by TIDA when it starts in 2012 a large-scale branding PR-company «Invest in Tatarstan».
The participants also discussed the exchange of experience, expert evaluation of investment projects, meetings of heads of regional institutions on a regular basis. Attention was paid to the training and skills development institutions in the region. It was also noted that Russia has a great potential in investment activity.
In the afternoon, regional development institutions have continued to work on a seminar "Attracting investments: international best practice”, where also performed Robert Wyatt. World Bank International expert on investment, during his visit to the International Economic Summit of Russia and OIC countries (KazanSummit 2013) presented the international best practices in attracting foreign capital.
Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Press Service