Cross-Border Investment Cooperation in the Arctic Region: Challenges and Opportunities

• Main Authors: Kudryashova Elena V., Zarubina Lyubov’ A., Sivobrova Irina A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Vologda Research Center 2019-03-01
• Series: Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
• Subjects: arctic region; cross-border investment cooperation; large-scale infrastructure projects; kolarctic cooperation program; best investment practices; investment attractiveness strategy
• Online Access: http://esc.vscc.ac.ru/article/28072/full?_lang=en

The article considers the investment processes that take place in the foreign and Russian Arctic, the tools to attract investment and the possibility of accumulating best practices in the implementation of investment projects. Analysis of the data on planned, unfinished and cancelled projects in the Russian and foreign Arctic, including joint projects, allows us to reveal problems in cross-border investment cooperation. In the framework of global economic challenges, when discussing the opportunities for the Northern regions alternative to large-scale production and transportation, we determine the need to find new promising areas of investment, including infrastructure projects. On the basis of official, statistical and expert assessments, we analyze the priorities and directions of investment activities in the Arctic and the main tools to increase investment attractiveness and promote investment. We consider European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) Kolarctic 2007–2013 as an analytical case, since it is one of the most effective tools for providing financial support to multilateral cross-border cooperation projects in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region. The project field of the program is quite extensive and contains a variety of topics; thsi contributed to the promotion of cross-border cooperation in various fields, involvement of different target groups and stakeholders, and development of project cooperation between different sectors in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region. We find it necessary to consider foreign practice of the comprehensive use of both direct and indirect methods for attracting investments; on its basis it can be possible to create the banks of best investment practices in Russia’s Northern regions. Having revealed the inertia of investment processes in the Arctic, we conclude that it is necessary to develop a strategy to increase the investment attractiveness of the Northern territories