Kaliningrad, an attractive location for EU investors

This study analyses the Kaliningrad region from the EU investorsu0092 point of view, and deals with the following issues in particular: - a need to organise a "Guichet unique" dealing with the EU investors, - a need to establish a European Information Centre, - a need to found the Kaliningrad Business Club, - a need to intensify the twinning of chambers of commerce, - a need for Kaliningrad to offer tax incentives and allocation facilities for foreign investors, and - the analysis of the new law on the Kaliningrad special economic zone and its impact on foreign investment inflow into the Kaliningrad region. In order to better comprehend the challenge the Kaliningrad region faces in attracting foreign investments, a brief overview on the recent development of the foreign investment in Kaliningrad is given. Thereafter, the author deals with the issues mentioned above. This study is based on the statistics, earlier reports on Kaliningrad, and the interviews conducted in Kaliningrad and Moscow in May 2006. The implementation of this study is supported by the fact that the author has followed the development of the Kaliningrad region since the end of the last decade. Moreover, the author acted as a short-term expert of the Russian-European Centre of Economic Policy (RECEP) funded by the European Commission last autumn. This assignment was dedicated to analysing the impact of the EU enlargement on the socio-economic development of the Kaliningrad region and the effect of the bill on the special economic zone to the investment inflows into the region (see Liuhto, 2005a).