Foreign Investments in Russia

General overview

In 2008, the World Bank estimated in the Russian Economic Report that the foreign investments have reached a total of 18.9 billion EUR. Russia was Europe’s third most valuable trading partner in 2008 and an essential energy supplier. In 2009, Ernst&Young reported a number of 170 projects with foreign capital in Russia. However, in 2010, the Russian authorities announced that foreign investments had fallen dramatically to 12-13 billion EUR. Recently, Russia promoted the concept of innovation in business in order to attract more and more foreign capital. 

Jobs in Russia

The unemployment rate in 2007 was 6.1%, according to the Rosstat and in 2010 rose to 7.6%. Based on the CIA World Factbook, the labour force counts 75.55 million citizens. In 2008, 58% of the employees in Russian companies worked in the service sector, while 31.9% were hired in industry and only 10% had a job in agriculture. Most foreign companies established in Russia create between 100 and 200 jobs. Only few are major businesses that can afford up to 1,000 new employees, who can be recruited from the Russian citizens or foreigners. However, foreign employers need to pay a lot of attention to the employment law when they hire people, because the text of the legislation is very tricky and not common in comparison to other nations.

Figures

In 2011, economic indicators show an estimated growth of 4% of the Russian Gross Domestic Product. As a matter of fact, the Federal Statistics Service calculated an enormous amount of foreign investment in the first half of 2011, estimated to 59.8 billion EUR, out of which almost half has already been invested by Russia in foreign affairs. It is believed that the oil prices which went higher made the contribution of foreign capital so consistent. Most of the funds came from Switzerland this year, with a major focus on financial services. 

Cyprus was the main source of foreign capital in Russia in 2006, but the United Kingdom invested even more the next year, providing 24% of the foreign capital in Russia, followed by the Netherlands with 20%. More than half of the capital that came from abroad was invested in service sector before 2007, while the second most important business sector for foreign investors was manufacturing, mostly of metals and fabricated metal products.

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