In 2017, investment growth in the economy The Far East four times exceeded the all-Russian indicators. The region receives more than a quarter of all investments in the Russian economy. This is a great achievement. Advanced development territories and the free port of Vladivostok attract domestic and foreign business. New enterprises open in the Far East, including those financed by foreign investors. At the initiative of the Russian government, a special Agency for the Far East was created to attract investments and support exports, whose activities are aimed at finding and attracting investors.
But in such a large-scale attention of foreign companies to the Far East, there are certain risks. To begin with, the most active in the Far East are Chinese, Japanese and South Korean companies, with China unequivocally leading, leaving other countries in East Asia far behind. By the way, it was in China that the first foreign representative office of the Far East Agency for attracting investment and export support was opened. This indicates that it is precisely Chinese investments that are considered the most real and large-scale in the Far East. So it is - in terms of investment in the Far Eastern economy, China has left Japan and South Korea far behind, not to mention the countries of Europe.
Now the volume of Chinese investment is 85% of the total investment in the Far Eastern economy. Chinese investors are eager to invest in the oil and gas industry, agriculture, housing, and high of technologies. For example, we can note the construction of an oil refinery in the territory of the Priamurskaya TOP, 90% of the investments in which are made by the Chinese company Manlan Xinghe. A pulp and paper mill will be built on Chinese investments in the city of Amursk (Khabarovsk Territory), and a soybean deep processing plant in the Jewish Autonomous Region. The active development of the Far East by the Chinese capital by many experts is seen as a “creeping expansion”, which sooner or later will lead to big problems.
When attracting foreign investors to the Far East, Russia should pay special attention to monitoring their activities so that investments do not turn into a banal purchase of resources and use the rich potential of Russian territories in their interests. For China, the Far East is a natural direction in terms of geographical and historical expansion of living space, and this fact cannot be ignored, even if Chinese investment is very beneficial to the Russian economy.