Even the laziest person knows the fact that the situation with investments is far from being good in Russia. The "money-bags" of the developed countries prefer to invest in China: the labor force there is a lot more available and cheaper.
However, there are foreign investments in Russia. Germany has been taking the first place in this respect for many years already. Now, this place is shared by Great Britain as well. What will happen to these investments? It seems that the investors will not stay in Russia for long, judging on the current situation in the country.
The Russian Trade Delegates in Great Britain informed that Great Britain takes the second position on the list of foreign investors in the Russian economy. German banks and companies still take the first place. According to the information from the office of the Russian trade in Great Britain, the investments of the British companies in Russia doubled over the first three quarters of the current year. The volume of investments exceeded the level of $1.7 billion dollars. It was also said that the saved British investments in the Russian economy made up $4.8 billion dollars, as of October 1, 2002. This is almost 1.5 times as much as last year.
Thus, the weight of Great Britain in the total volume of foreign investments in the Russian economy gained 13.2% vs. 8.7% last year. It is also worth mentioning here that the total volume of foreign investments in Russia dropped by ten percent, according to the information from the Russian government.
The British investors are interested in various industrial branches and activities in Russia. British business has made considerable investments in the field of services and in energetic, metallurgical, construction, financial, trading, and catering branches of the Russian industry.
German investments would also make a very long list, but there are lots of more important problems to talk about. Russian senior officials, including President Putin, keep on repeating that foreign investments are so very vital for the Russian economy. Both Russian and foreign businessmen listen to those speeches and nod their heads. But what are these money-mannered gentlemen supposed to think when the Russian State Statistic Committee says that Russia invested 8.462 billion dollars in the economy of the United States of America over nine months of the current year? To crown it all, this sum is ten times as large as the USA's investments in Russia.
At the end of the day, if foreign investors want to invest their money in American companies, they will do it independently. However, they came to invest in Russia. It is obvious that it is not pleasant for them to know that someone reinvested their money in the United States. Well, the USA is a superpower, after all. This can be understood, since the whole world wants to save money in American banks (except for Saudi Arabia). However, Russia invests a lot in other countries, which are not that immaculate, from the investment point of view.
The list of the Russian Statistics Committee included Cyprus (the second place). This country is world known for its resorts and for its numerous money-laundering schemes as well. Russia invested $2.541 billion dollars in Cyprus. The third position of the Russian list is taken by Virginia Isles. This was really surprising to know, for both the American and the British governments have something to claim from them. Russia invested one billion 175 million dollars in Virginia Isles. The list goes on with Lithuania – 294 million, Iran – 89 million, and so on.
To crown it all, the Russian State Statistics Committee informed that the volume of Russian investments that were saved abroad (as of the end of September 2002) made up 4.05 billion dollars. Well, foreigners are not stupid either. American special services discovered after August of 1998 (the time of the financial crisis in Russia) that 3.5 billion dollars of the four-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund were reinvested. American special services found out that someone from Russia reinvested that money in Cyprus, Bahamas, and Bermuda Islands offshore zones.
Is there any point to investomh in Russia if this money is going to be reinvested somewhere else, and then Russian officials will travel abroad, asking to invest some more, for some noble purposes? It is obvious that the Russian government should establish law and order in its own country and then create the conditions that would be good for money. Why not keeping the Russian capital in Russia, in the first place? Then it would be great to invite foreign guests to come and bring their money. Otherwise, it is absolutely not clear why Great Britain and Germany invest in Russia. Maybe, there is too much spare money?
Kira Poznakhirko PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Dmitry Sudakov