Report for investments in Russia

Extract

[...] This means that for telecom, Russia did not want to invest in government use. Instead, it preferred to invest in the individual use of telecommunications as we shall see a little later. In other words, government usage is an axis to be developed in Russia. Moreover, we can underline that we are late on another point: the capacity for innovation. Although Russia is not the last on the latter point, it is unfortunately not well placed on innovation. Below, we realized a comparative chart to demonstrate you more easily the difference which we can have with the other countries: Source: The global information technology report 2008-2009 In spite of the fact that Russia is classified in the last ones, we cannot say that other BRICs countries are doing much better. [...]

[...] Time required to start a business The global Information technology report indicates us that it is faster to start a business in Russia than in China and India. It means that setting up a business in Russia can be done in no time at all, which shows that Russia benefits from a really good business friendly atmosphere. Number of procedures In Russia, we want to minimize the number of procedures but we also pay attention to the reduction of the risk of fraud, otherwise, businesses are trapped in the unregulated, informal economy, where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers, and where workers lack the protection of labor law. [...]

[...] Environment component According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2008/2009 analysis and ranking, we know that Russia is a country in transition from stage of efficiency driven country to stage of innovation driven country development. Thus, based on the technology-gap theory, returns on investment are significantly higher in Russia than in other BRIC countries. Even if Russia's global rank for environment component is the third among the BRICs, Russia does have a competitive advantage regarding this aspect for our investment since it possesses good rankings in the sub-criteria that are really relevant for this investment, and especially regarding infrastructures which are essentials to build a long-run and profitable business. [...]

[...] Thanks to government support, the quality of Russia's educational system has been increasingly growing and, as the following graph suggests, the Russian educational system is ranked number 36, which places it number 1 amongst the BRICs: Through the major changes that Russia has been doing for the past years in its educational system, the country has succeeded in turning a weakness into strength. Indeed, Russia's quality of educational and research systems, combined with quite innovative firms which invest significantly in R&D (46th position) is now one of the country's main competitive advantage in ICT. [...]

[...] However, the Global Information Technology report (2008/2009) indicates that the number of mobile telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants was in 2007 almost seven times higher in Russia (114,6) than it was in India (20). Investing in mobile telephony in Russia would bring important revenues through high margin due to high price and a potentially high consumption. Another factor is that mobiles can constitute a substitute product to residential phones which are still expensive in this country and require relatively higher outlays for the modernization and extension of the fixed line telephony infrastructure. [...]