The legislative document, which was submitted to the State Duma this week, can be seen as a slap in the face to investment-thirsty companies seeking to develop their businesses.
A group of nine State Duma members, representatives of all the four political parties in the legislative assembly, are behind the bill, newspaper Vedomosti reports. The draft legislation proposes to give special status to companies, which has less than a 10 percent foreign ownership stake, limited activities abroad and low levels of foreign credits. Among the privileges are special tax benefits.
The new bill will not make it easier for Russian companies to attract much-needed investments. Over the last years, the level of foreign investments has gradually declined.
Figures from Rosstat show that foreign investments in all the five Russian federal subjects in the Barents Region in 2012 declined compared with 2011 figures. The decline was biggest in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug which saw its foreign investments shrink from $1,85 billion to $333 million and in Murmansk where investments dropped from $131 million to $89 million. On federal level, foreign investments in 2012 increased slightly to $362,4 billion.
The new Russian bill comes at a time when the country is experiencing a zero-growth in industrial production and a weak, less than 2 percent, annual growth in GDP. At the same time, the number of successful small and medium-sized companies remains at a very modest level.
The bill must also seen as a blow also to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev who for years has been working to attract foreign investors to Russia, including his top priority Skolkovo project.
