Last year, a serious slowdown in the pace of development of the Free Economic Zone (FEZ) of Crimea and Sevastopol was recorded.
About it write "Izvestia", referring to the report of the Ministry of Economic Development on the results of the SEZ.
Thus, the number of residents increased by only 3% (to 1714 participants), and the rate of investment growth slowed down threefold (2017% more in 92). To revive interest in Crimea, the ministry proposes to reintroduce lower rates for insurance premiums for workers, abolished in 2018, but experts consider this incentive to be ineffective - according to them, large investors are still being held back by the systemic problems of Crimea.
In turn, the managing director of the Center for Support of Foreign Economic Activity and Regional Development, Andrei Tochin, tells the publication that in reality, lower insurance premium rates are not a decisive reason for entrepreneurs to invest money in new projects. The expert believes that the slowdown in activity is most likely due to the fact that the potential for investment demand in Crimea has already been largely exhausted. In his opinion, in order to initiate new large projects, it is necessary to solve the systemic problems of the region that hinder the influx of business: shortages of electricity and fresh water.
At the same time, the permanent representative of the Republic of Crimea to the President, Georgy Muradov, explains the slowdown by the fact that the potential of the influx of foreign investment to the peninsula has not yet been fully realized. According to him, this year the interest of foreign investors in Crimea has increased significantly.
“Dozens of requests have appeared from potential residents that relate to a wide range of areas for cooperation: from industry to fish processing. This is partly due to positive shifts in sentiment, including in the European Union,” says Muradov.
At the same time, the newspaper draws attention to the fact that in terms of the volume of capital investments, the SEZ in Crimea is the leader among all Russian territories with preferential treatment for residents.
“Thus, Alabuga, the largest among the special economic zones (SEZ), attracted 2018 billion rubles of investment in 13,9, the St. Petersburg SEZ - 8,4 billion. Over the four years of the zone’s existence in Crimea, the total volume of capital investments amounted to 106 billion rubles, while 15 Russian SEZs have attracted 15 billion rubles from investors over 370 years,” the publication points out.