by Tatyana Bogomolova and Elena Kovaleva
Most enterprises with foreign investments (EFI) are organized in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other regions of European Russia.
The vast realms of Siberia, however, also are becoming involved in this process. While some regions poor in natural resources
lead in a number of joint ventures, those rich in raw materials lead in overall authorized capital. Serious large-scale investments
are made only in isolated non-risk projects such as extraction and processing hydrocarbon raw materials, or cutting and timber
processing. The largest EFIs are concentrated in Siberian fuel and power industries. A number of big EFIs was also organized in
the timber industry. Siberia’s EFIs are generally similar to Russia’s ones, with a somewhat bigger share of industry and therefore
a lower share of trade and other sectors. The most active partners (as the quantity of EFI indicates) are industrially developed
countries of the West, especially the USA and Germany, and also China. Recently the Russian Government has been paying
much attention to forming a system of institutions dealing with foreign investments. Foreign investors are covered by the national
policy for investing, but EFIs enjoy a number of benefits as compared with national enterprises (certain custom privileges, for
example). In addition, Russia signed the 1985 Seoul convention regarding the establishment of a Multi-party agency guaranteeing
investments (MAGI) at the World Bank, and the 1965 Washington convention on establishing the International center for settling
investment disputes at the World Bank.