Arkhangelsk steps up hunt for investors

-The potential is huge - our main task is to facilitate and stimulate new investments in the region, regional economic development leader Sergei Averin says. He this week launched the region’s new web portal for investors, Dvinainvest.ru. The new site is an initiative from the Arkhangelsk regional administration.

The main advantages of the region is its access to the sea and developed infrastructure, its machine building capacities, vicinity to the markets in central Russia, its natural resources and its tourist potential, the website informs.

Arkhangelsk might have major potential, but the region is still likely to face a hard task with attracting new investors. The region’s infrastructure is run-down and badly developed after decades of public negligence. The region has been among the worst hit in Russia by the economic crisis, which has left public budgets cut to the bone and investment programmes frozen.

Arkhangelsk is closely engaged in international cooperation, partly within the frames of the Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation. The Norwegian Barents Secretariat has a permanent office in the city.