Rostov-on-Don hosted the presentation of a rating prepared by the editorial staff of the magazine Expert South and the Expert Rating Agency of the 150 largest companies in the Southern Federal District (SFD). Businessmen have recognized that with the stabilization of the situation in the region it has become easier to do business, but there are serious problems too
Expert is the first to have made an attempt to conduct such a large-scale study of the economy of the Southern Federal District. For a long time business development in the region has attracted little attention, hampered by the unstable political situation and the constant threat of renewed armed conflicts in the North Caucasus.
But today, with the stabilization of the political situation, the pace of economic development in the Southern District by a number of indicators is higher than in the rest of the country. For example, the pace of industrial growth in 2006 for the SFD amounted to 10.8%, while for the country as a whole the figure was equal to 3.9%. According to the results of last year the turnover of the largest businesses in the south exceeded 850 billion rubles, and their consolidated profit before tax was more than 75 billion rubles. In 2007, again, these numbers should grow; Sochi’s victory in the contest for the right to host the Winter Olympics in 2014 has had a great impact on the development of the region’s economy. Just at the recent economic forum held in Sochi in early autumn investment agreements were reached worth 140 billion rubles.
The Expert South journalists and researchers from Expert RA who compiled the rating pointed out that the places of the 150 companies in the list were determined by the volume of their revenue and sales according to the results of 2006. The rating used data from the Federal State Statistics Service, as well as information from open sources and from questionnaires completed by companies.
Expert magazine’s Editor-in-chief Valery Fadeyev said that “the research carried out will be very useful for business development in the south”. Businessmen agree with future prospects, but remember too that the problems in the region remain quite serious. Thus, when speaking about the economy of the SFD one should not forget that many businesses remain non-transparent. Expert South’s Editor-in-chief Vladimir Kozlov drew the attention of those gathered to the fact that in the rating of the largest companies there is no Yug Rusi agro-industrial holding, whose revenue is estimated at about 15 billion rubles - the holding includes a hundred entities, making it almost impossible to try to determine an overall picture of its activities. Kozlov added that the bulk of the SFD’s economy is made up of the sale and transportation of oil, gas and electricity.
The event ended with the most successful businesses in the SFD receiving awards. Valery Fadeyev handed out awards to the director of Agrokom, Sergei Bortsov, for a significant contribution to the development of social projects; to Ingprom, for the district’s most transparent business; and to Mobikom-Kavkaz for the most profitable.
One of the speakers pointed out that the Russian economy has three ways of development: to build the economy based on the values of liberal democracy - transparency, competitiveness and attractiveness to investors; the Mexican type of economy - less transparency and less attractiveness; and, finally, to turn into Nigeria - corrupt and undeveloped.
Naturally, none of the southerners want to live in Nigeria, and in order to help the development of a competitive economy based on democratic values, not only in figures but also by ideas, Valery Fadeyev and Vladimir Pligin opened one more regional office of the 4 November Club in Rostov-on-Don. Now the ideas of liberal conservatism will reach those living in the south of the country too.
Vera Kholmogorova
http://eng.expert.ru
