Общие сведения о регионе:

 

Location, natural resources. Population. Leningrad Oblast (territory - 83908 sq. km) shares a border with both Finland and Estonia, as well as an administrative border with five other subjects of the Russian Federation: the Novgorod, Pskov, and Vologda areas, the Republic of Karelia and St. Petersburg.

The majority of the region occupies lowland areas. 1800 lakes are located within Leningrad Oblast. The largest of them is Lake Ladoga - the largest lake in Europe.

General extent of all rivers in Leningrad Oblast is about 50 th. km. 55.5% of Leningrad Oblast territory contains forest.

Natural resources. Leningrad Oblast has substantial reserves of wood, turf, bauxites, oil shale, slates granite limestone, sand and phosphate rock.

Transport. Leningrad Oblast has a developed network of roads, railways, river ports, and seaports. Extent of railways - more than 3 thousand km. Density of networks - 32 km of rail for every 1000 sq. km. Turnover of goods of transport enterprises - 40 bln. t/km. Extent of motorways - more than 13 thousand km. Density of hard covered roads network - 125 km of roadway for every 1000 sq. km. Extent of navigable ways -- 1908 km, turnover of goods - more than 15 million tons/year. River ports: Leningrad and Podporozhsky.

Population (people).

Resident population by the beginning of 2000	1666.5 th.	Economically active population by the end of 1999	829.0 th.
Share of urban population, %	66	Employed people (by the end of 1999), %	85.2
Density of population, people/km2	20
Share of population in employable age group, by the beginning of 2000, %	59.1	Unemployed people by the ILO (by the end of 1999), %	14.8

Administrative -- territorial division. Authority. Being the independent subject of the Russian Federation, Leningrad Oblast includes 29 municipal regions, subdivided into districts, 17 areas, 9 cities, and numerous small settlements of city type.

The Legislative Assembly of Leningrad Oblast is a standing legislative (representative) authority of Leningrad Oblast. The regional administration consists of the governor's chancellery and various committees and departments. Members of the government include the governor, first vice-governor, six vice-governors and seven heads of the committees. The governor of Leningrad Oblast is the highest executive and head of all executive bodies. Directly under the governor is the committee for information and the press, the committee for international relations, the committee for food and consumer goods marketing and the agriculture committee.

Economy. GRP in Leningrad Oblast in 1998 - R 21171.2 mln (USD 1023 mln), that amounts to 0.9% of GRP for Russian Federation (8.6% of GRP for Northwest of Russia). GRP per capital in Leningrad Oblast in 1998 - R 12591.4 (USD 608 ).

Industry. The industry of Leningrad Oblast has many sectors. The main ones are fuel, oil refining, forestry, lumber, pulp and paper, chemical production, and engineering. There are 300 basic industrial enterprises, most of which are corporations. The region's economy is close to St. Petersburg, and many regional enterprises were established as branches of the city enterprises. Transmash, a former Kirovsky Zavod's plant in Tikhvin, is an example of this. The flagships of Leningrad Oblast manufacturing are LAES (Nuclear Power Station) in Sosnovy Bor, Kirishinefteorgsintez (petroleum industry) in Kirishi, Phosphorite (chemical industry) in Kingisepp, company "Era" in Tosno (chemical industry), VAZ in Volkhov and aluminous companies in Boksitogorsk and Pikalevo, shipbuilding enterprise in Vyborg, pulp and paper enterprise "Svetogorsk".

Index of industry output in 2000 in Leningrad Oblast came to 126.8% of 1999 level. The biggest index rate was in food industry (80% increase over 1999), in wood-chemical and chemical industry (80% and 70% increase), in pulp and paper industry (28%), in petroleum engineering (70%), in textile industry (27%), in woodworking industry (18%) and in cement industry (13%).

Agriculture. The agriculture of Leningrad Oblast has different specialisation. 16% of total output occupies plant-growing (basic cultures - potatoes, vegetables, fodder), 74 % - live-stock husbandry. Agricultural lands - 745.4 th. ha, including arable lands - 423.8 th ha. In 2000, total gross production volume in the agricultural sector of Leningrad Oblast amounted to R 16.3 bln (6 % increase over 1999, including 7 % increase in plant-growing , 5% increase in live-stock husbandry).

Investment activities & Investment Legislation. In 1997, Leningrad Oblast passed a law on investment activities, which was later complemented by a number of legal acts that regulate investment activities in the region. The main feature of the regional legislation with regard to investment is that investors get a maximum range of privileges for their work. Among important regional laws are: "About preferential taxation of the enterprises and the organisations located in territory of Leningrad Oblast", " About investment activity in Leningrad Oblast" and additions to it, "About tax and investment tax credits". The law "About leasing activity in Leningrad Oblast" is under consideration now.

In 2000, total volume of investments into the economy of Leningrad Oblast amounted to R 19.6 bln (10% increase over 1999), including USD 225 mln & R 1.4 bln of foreign investments. The main countries - investors are: USA, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Finland. In Leningrad Oblast operates such companies as: the Philip Morris Izhora factory, the Craft Food factory, the Caterpillar Tosno Company, the Assi Doman Company, the Kres Neva tobacco factory, the Svetogorsk factory.

ССЫЛКИ

ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫЙ САЙТ ПРАВИТЕЛЬСТВА ЛЕНИНГРАДСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ