Founded: 1350

Governor: Valerii Pavlinovich Shantsev (appointed August 8, 2005)

Federation Council Representative: Alexander Vitalyevich Sabadash (executive, term expires January 2005)

Duma deputies: Alexander Yevseyevich Khinshteyn (Semyonovsky district)(United Russia); Anatoly Alexandrovich Kozeradsky (Arzamassky district)(United Russia); Alexey Yevgenyevich Likhachev (Kstovsky district)(United Russia); Yury Petrovich Senturin (Avtozavodsky district)(Rodina); Vladimir Alexandrovich Stalmakhov (Dzerzhinsky district)(United Russia); Lyubomir Indekovich Tyan (Kanavinsky district)(United Russia)

Population: 3,524,000 (2002 census)

Capital: Nizhny Novgorod (population 1,311,200), 400 km from Moscow, Russia's third-largest city

Other major cities: Dzerzhinsk (population 261,400), Arzamas (population 109,500)

Federal district: Volga

Economic region: Volga-Vyatsk

Time zone: Moscow, GMT +3, EST +8

Geography: Nizhny Novgorod  is situated at the meeting of the Oka and Volga rivers. The region shares a border with the regions of Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Kirov as well as with the Mordovia, Chuvash Republic and Mari El Republics.

Urban population: 78%,  Rural population: 22%

Economy: Due to its location on main waterways, Nizhny Novgorod has a large river port with access to the Baltic, Black, Caspian, and White seas and the Sea of Azov. The area is also highly industrialized with the focus of the economy on the transportation industry. Cars, ships, diesel engines, aircraft parts and machine tools are all produced in the region.  Nizhny Novgorod is also a cultural center with major theaters whose history dates back hundreds of years.

Technology Parks: For 2007, the Russian government allocated Rbs360 mln ($13.67 mln) in the Nizhni Novgorod Region for establishing an information technology park near Ankudinovskoye Highway in Nizhni Novgorod. The park will attract investment from Intel, Microsoft, AFK Sistema, Telma and Mera (the latter being local companies) and two Chinese companies producing ceramics for solar batteries, totalling Rbs15 bln ($564.76 mln), with Rbs2.9 bln coming from budgets to be applied to engineering infrastructure. The park will be divided according to zone functionality and will cover 620,000 sq m.

Sintez of Dzerzhinsk has completed its restucturing & shut down, positioning itself as an industrial park that owns land, buildings and facilities, industrial and transport infrastructure, all of which is for rent. After the restructuring, Sintez recorded net profit in the first nine months of 2006 of Rbs16.816 mln against net losses Rbs75.347 mln in the same period 2005.

Logistics: Logoprom Sormovo, a subsidiary of the Volga Logistics Association (PLA), will invest Rbs15 mln ($565,611) in the region's largest Class A warehousing.  By end 2007, Logoprom's warehousing will be exclusively Class A, and incorporate a customs point, auto and railway logistics divisions at Volgovyatmashelektrosnabsbyt, a large complex of storage facilities for consumer goods near the Volga and Vyatka regions. The company will also open a 15,000 sq-m container terminal a capacity of 800 TEU per month which will service 20- and 40-feet containers, with storage for 2000 ina 17,000 sq m depot

Industry: Swiss construction machinery manufacturers Liebherr will invest over $180 mln in an assembly plant for earth-moving equipment in the Volga region. The construction of the $80 mln plant is scheduled for June 2007 on 1mln sq-m. It will be the third project of the Swiss concern in the region, where it is cooperating with the Teploobmennik and Gidromash companies working for the aircraft industry.

Pharma: Volgaorgkhim will invest $14 mln to launch production of the monochloracetic acid in Dzerzhinsk. Monochloracetic acid is a product of organic synthesis, used as a raw material to produce some important chemical products, including such a multifunctional material as carboxylmethyl cellulose, widely used for drilling oil wells.

Paper-Mills: The Volga Pulp and Paper Mill (a subsidiary of Alfa-Eco incorporated into Alfa Group) will invest more than €200 mln into a mill which will produce 250,000-270,000 metric tons of higher-grade newsprint and light-coated paper per annum. Russia’s annual demand for such paper is 350,000-370,000 metric tons. Finnish Stora Enso, an integrated forest products company producing magazine papers, newsprint, fine papers, packaging boards and wood products, has also proposed that the Volga administration consider building a plant to produce pulp and coated paper in the region. However, the Volga pulp and paper mill does not view the Finnish company as a rival.

There are some 3 mln cu m of unused timber in the region. The Volga mill needs 700,000 cu m, which means that the regional government can offer the remaining 2.3 mln cu m of timber to Stora Enso.

Forestry: JSC Sibles from Yekaterinburg in the Urals has won a tender held by the Nizhni Novgorod department of the Federal Forest Agency for the right to use Vetluga-Unzha and Varnavino forests as commercial farms. The tender was held to promote deep processing of timber, according to the government of the Russian region on the Volga. Sibles, which has won a 10-year lease of forests with 300,000 cu m of timber, is to sign a lease contract with the Federal Forest Agency. Daninbur Trading Ltd. (UK) intends to invest Rbs1.7 bln ($64.74 mln) in a deep processing establishment in the region, which should be commissioned in 2008.

Agriculture: In 2006, the federal government allocated $10.64 mln to the region in connection with the National Project on Agriculture, most of which was allocated to cover expenses on interest on loans for development projects.

National Projects: The National Project on Education/Demographics in Nizhni Novgorod received $11.7 mln to be put towards innovative educational programmes in local schools. The Project on Health received $3.32 mln to subsidize payment to medical professionals for 2007, and the National "Housing" Project has invested $6.2 mln in 2006, focusing on modernisation of housing infrastructure. 

SME's: Sberbank's Volgo-Vyatsky Bank has extended loans of $7 mln in 58 social projects targeted at fostering small and medium sized enterprises in the Volga region of Nizhni Novgorod. The loans focus on expanding and modernizing the timber industry, opening cafes and acquiring new equipent and transport.

Official website: http://www.government.nnov.ru

Contact information
Governor
Valerii Pavlinovich Shantsev
Kremlin
Corpus 1 and 2
Nizhny Novgorod 603082
Tel.: +7 (8312) 19 73 00

Press service contact
Ludmila Viktorovna Tumanova
Tel.: +7 (8312) 19  72 50
Fax: +7 (8312) 19 72 40
Email: pres2@os.kreml.nnov.ru

Chairman of Legislative Assembly
Yevgeny Borisovich Lulin
Kremlin
Corpus 2
Nizhny Novgorod 603082
Tel.: +7 (8312) 39 05 38
Fax: +7 (8312) 39 06 29
Email: nnovg@duma.gov.ru

Representative to the Government of the Russian Federation
Viktor Alexandrovich Gulyashko
5 Nastasynsky pereulok
Moscow 127006
Tel.: +7 (095) 956 92 47
Fax: +7 (095) 956 92 48

last updated December 7, 2006