 Main page » Arkhangelsk Region » International relations
Today the closeness to industrially developed regions in the centre of Russia and to Scandinavian countries determines the successful development of external economic and trading links of the Arkhangelsk Region in many respects. Mutually beneficial cooperation with the Barents Region partners continues successfully; the geography of economic, humanitarian and tourism cooperation expands to the European Union countries, to the USA.
The Arkhangelsk Region attracts partners with the long-established links, with the built-up infrastructure, wide possibilities of developing different industries, and stable geopolitical situation.
The chances to attract new investments depend much on the quality of external economic activities. The Arkhangelsk Region economy traditionally is oriented to external markets, the larger part of the Region’s produce is exported. In the year of 2004 the number of registered businesses which took part in external economic activities was 288. The produce labeled «made in Arkhangelsk» has been long an authoritative brand in the western markets. In 2004 the foreign trade turnover in the Region grew up 15 % as compared to 2003, and reached 986.8 million dollars.
Currently the most popular form of investment cooperation in the Region is opening joint companies. There are 119 joint enterprises with foreign capital working in the Region, and 28 companies belong to foreign businesses. Their main spheres of activity are logging and wood processing, transportation and cargo forwarding, trade, international transportation, metal-working, fishery and agriculture, consumer goods production.
The most successful partners from Europe working in the Region are the Russian – German «Dammers» wood-working joint venture, the Russian- Danish «Shalakusha Wood Processing Industry» joint venture, the Danish «DLX Nordisk» Company branch, and the Norwegian-Russian enterprise «Solombalskaya Sudoverf (Shipyard)».
A good example of a long-term cooperation of Russian and foreign oil companies might be the 10-years effective work of the «Polar Lights Company», which was jointly founded by American «Conoco» Corporation and «Arkhangelskgeologia» in January 1992. The «Conoco» investments into the Ardalin Oil-Field Prospecting Project, which gave its first barrels of oil in August 1994, are the largest western investments into oil industry of Russia among other joint ventures. The financial backing was held not only through the Corporation of Foreign Private Investments, but through the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank.
The trans-national corporation «Halliburton International» continues its successful work in the Region; it takes part in technical equipment of oil prospecting areas in the Nenets Autonomous District and has close and active cooperation with conversion enterprises of the State Russian Centre of Atomic Ship-Building in Severodvinsk «Sevmash» and «Zvezdochka» GMP (State Machine-Building Corporation). The companies and enterprises of the Region continue their cooperation with the largest Norwegian oil and gas companies «Statoil» and «Hydro».
In ship-building industry «Sevmash» Industrial Corporation and «Zvezdochka» GMP in Severodvinsk have got stable cooperation with foreign partners – the large Dutch companies «Mammoet», «Damen», and the Norwegian concerns «Aker Kvaerner» and «Kimek».
Traditionally the Arkhangelsk Region cooperates with foreign countries in sea cargo transportation and sea communication. The Arkhangelsk sea port and the Northern Shipping Company have got long-term economic ties with enterprises in Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Hull and Rotterdam.
The projects connected with the use of alternative energy sources have good perspectives for the Region. Together with the Astrakhan and Kaliningrad Regions, the Arkhangelsk Region was chosen to realize pilot projects in energy supply and energy effectiveness. The Region also participates in energy dialogue of Russia and the European Union; we actively cooperate with some Swedish and Norwegian enterprises in the use of alternative energy sources such as peat and other biological matter, timber in particular, in the sphere of ‘small’ energy industry.
Examples of successful cooperation of the Arkhangelsk Region with the world credit institutions is financial backing of the energy saving project in Arkhangelsk by the World Bank in the amount of more than 6 million dollars as well as an agreement between the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the Ecological Foundation «Northern Dimension» of the European Union to invest 19 million euros into reconstruction of the water supply system of the city of Arkhangelsk. Besides, in 1993 the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development gave a credit of 90 million dollars to the «Polar Lights Company» Ltd for prospecting the Ardalin Oil Field and a credit of 500 thousand dollars to the «Teplichnoye» Joint-Stock Company.
Financial backing of students’ exchange by Norwegian state structures and the Barents Program allowed many students from Arkhangelsk go to study in Norway and Sweden. In this way specialists for future joint ventures with foreign investments are being trained, an intellectual potential for developing the Region economy is being taught, and Russian specialists’ experience in the western consulting markets is being gained.
| |
Monastery
