RUSSIA BECOMING MORE ATTRACTIVE FOR INVESTORS
MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti's Arseny Oganesyan) - Top managers of foreign companies interested in Russia believe this country is one of the most promising for investments in Europe. According to the data of Ernst & Young's survey, by investment attractiveness Russia is in 8th place in the world, and in Europe, it is second only to Germany in the number of projects planned for realization. This information is contained in Vedomosti, an influential Russian newspaper of business circles, published together with The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
The Ernst & Young European Investment Monitor is based on the results of a survey of top managers of 513 European, U.S., and Asian companies involved in different sectors - from relatively small (with an annual income of less than 150 million euros) to transnational (over 1.5 billion euros). The survey was conducted from February 23 to March 31. Respondents could choose three countries attractive for them.
China remains the main contender for foreign capital - 37% of respondents called it the most attractive country for their investment projects. China is followed by the U.S. (30%) and European countries: Germany (19%), the U.K. (16%), Poland (15%), the Czech Republic (11%) and India (11%). They are followed by Russia and France (8% each).
The Ernst & Young survey is one more evidence that foreign top managers noticed the fast growth of the Russian economy. The last, September, report of A.T. Kearney Consulting, who annually publishes investment attractiveness rankings, indicates that Russia moved up from 17th to 8th place.
Among the companies polled by Ernst & Young, 9% already plan new projects in Russia, which gives the country second place after Germany (11%) in the list of European countries. Mark Jarvis, Ernst & Young's partner in the CIS, says transnational corporations think more often about the organization of production in Russia for servicing the CIS and Eastern European market, and sometimes the markets of Europe and Asia as a whole. He explains the appearance of Russia in the ranking by its fast development.
According to the Vedomosti newspaper, Russian analysts in general agree with experts' conclusions. In the opinion of Troika Dialog's chief economist, Yevgeny Gavrilenkov, for the last five years, foreign investors made sure that the Russian economy can successfully grow due to internal resources and that it can be invested in. |
