Business Infrastructure

The district’s geographical location is on the Volga, the largest Russian river and the intersection of a transport corridor connecting Europe and Asia, as well as the North and South of the continent. This location provides the territory with several competitive advantages which are becoming more and more obvious due to the development of transport infrastructure and logistics. Active development of the financial, juridical, recruitment and consulting companies in the regions of the VFD provides investors with a full range of service they need, from hiring translators and other skilled workers to office renting, from accounting outsourcing to bank loan extension.

The level of transport infrastructure development in the district is very high: the district is third in the Russian Federation (after Central Russia and the South of Russia) in railway density (143 km of roads in a territory of 1000km2), and second in Russia for highway density (140 kms of roads in a territory of 1000km2). Nevertheless, all this potential has not fully been realized: in spite of the district’s transitional location, transport is only 9.7% of the Gross Regional Product, a percentage which is below the average Russian value (10%).

According to the “Conception of Social and Economic Development of the Volga Federal District by 2020,” further economic development in the VFD will depend on the balanced development of electro-energetic, transport, social customs, and logistic infrastructure, as well as environmental safety. The capacity of highways, construction of new bridges across the Volga, development of international transport corridors, development of the Volgograd and Astrakhan airports, modernization of the Astrakhan-Mahachkala railway, implementation of infrastructural invest projects and etc. all play a very important role.

A nationwide strategic project in the field of rail transport is the Belkomur Project, which has been approved by the Administration of the President of Russia and the Government of the Russian Federation. An important direction of the development will be the increase of generating capacity in northern parts of the district and the upgrading of the network economy for subjects of the Russian Federation located in the southern part of the district in order to provide developing and promising industries with all the necessary staff.

There are many large Russian financial organizations and globally recognized banks in the district, such as Societe Generale, Raiffeisen Bank, and BNP Paribas. You can also find in the VFD such well-known consulting companies as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the recruiting agency Ankor, courier services TNT and DHL, and also many other companies that deal with commercial real estate, computer and office equipment selling, office arrangement, accounting and legal support, investment consulting, market researches, etc.