Kirill Morozov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra  on Investment, Science and Technology said about it at the press-conference in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Kirill Morozov met the reporters at the press-centre of the news agency “Interfax-Yugra” on April 20.

The mass-media representatives were interested in the prospects of the investment policy of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra now.

According to the information of the news agency “Interfax-Yugra”, by October 2005 the government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra plans to finish the development of the regional investment program for 2005-2010.

The main issues of this program are the definition of the role, the place and the degree pf participance of the regional government, public authorities and local government in the investment process in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra.

Besides, it is necessary to work out the conditions that improve the investment climate of the Okrug and develop the efficient tools for investment activity implementation in Yugra.

According to the results of 2004, the growth of industrial production in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra rose by 10, 5% in comparison with 2003 (in Russia – by 6, 1 %), the investments in the major capital of the regional enterprises amounted to $7 bln (rose by 11%). The volume of foreign investments achieved $4 bln.

Kirill Morozov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra  on Investment, Science and Technology told the reporters about the major areas of work of the regional investment policy in the nearest future.

“Any economy, any state, any entity of the Federation is stable if there is an industrial growth and new projects in the region.  If these projects are profitable, the tax revenue is growing, social and infrastructure areas are developing, - noted Kirill Morozov.

At the moment the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra takes part in several investment projects, some of which have almost implemented and others are under way or in the final stage.
The present investment projects in the timber industry are the open corp. “Yugra forest- industrial holding” that includes “Sovetsklesprom” and open corp. “LVL-Yugra”.

The construction of the plant on medicine manufacturing of the open corp. “YugraFarm” (Tyumen) is almost completed. Its planned capacity is more than 10 mln of infusion solutions and 1 bln of solid medicines per year.

According to the information of the news agency “Interfax-Yugra, for 2005 the regional action program “Cooperation” should have 150 mln. rubles of credit and 150 mln.rub. of guarantees to the Tyumen region for credits of the enterprise.

The enterprise on clear quartz production “The Polar Quartz” is under construction. The production capacity of the plant will amount to 10 000 tons of concentrate. The expected profit from the projects under the planned production capacity is estimated at more than $ 40 mln a year.

“The last few years in the of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra saw the persistent growth of the industrial production, - stressed Kirill Morozov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra  on Investment, Science and Technology at the press-conference. – The Government of the Autonomous Okrug works on enhancement of foreign investment attraction efficiently and consequently. The number of laws for stimulation of this work was adopted. Nevertheless, there is still much to do. It is necessary to systematize and regulate the work in this area. We have already begun to develop the regional investment program, and we hope to complete it in 2005. in this program we will try to take into account the experience of other entities of the Russian Federation”.

One of the criteria of the investment attractiveness growth in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra is the fact that in March 2005 the international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s  raised the long-term credit rating in the foreign currency in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra from “BB-“ to “BB”. The forecast of rating change is “Stable”.

Thus, Yugra is an intensively developing region, just like Bashkortostan, Moscow and Samara regions. At the press conference on April 20 Kirill Morozov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra  on Investment, Science and Technology answered the reporters’ questions about the investment activity in the oil production industry, construction industry of the Okrug and others. Besides, Kirill Morozov informed about the plans of some production enterprises in the municipal institutions of Yugra.