April 1999

In February, the U.S. Government inaugurated an American Business Center (ABC) in the Volga city of Samara, some 600 miles southeast of Moscow. The new abc is collocated with the United States' Regional Investment Initiative (RII) coordinator, who arrived in April 1997. Samara Oblast has repeatedly been rated among the most attractive regions in Russia for investment, in part because of its progressive and efficient local government. Last year, U.S. firms invested $50 million in Samara, which offers opportunities for trade and investment in agribusiness, auto parts, engineering, and more.

The ABC office in Samara provides professional office and business support services for U.S. companies seeking to do business there. The rii in Samara is part of the Gore-Primakov Commission's activities and is focused on increasing trade and investment with regions that have already proven commercially successful for U.S. companies. rii efforts will include joint work with regional authorities aimed at addressing key obstacles to investment, mobilization of finance for private sector trade and investment, and promoting partnerships between U.S. and Russian regionally based investment promotion agencies, state/oblast officials, business organizations, universities, and other nongovernmental organizations. rii progams are also operating in the Russian city of Novgorod and the Far East, as well as in the cities of Kharkhiv, Ukraine, and Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

The RII coordinator for Samara is Joan Agerholm. She can be contacted at tel/fax: +7 (8462) 38-48-53 or e-mail: 75271.2434@compuserve.com.

The Samara ABC can be reached at tel/fax: +7 (8462) 79-20-41, 79-20-42, 79-20-43; website: cnit.ssau.ru/ABC/.

This report is provided courtesy of the Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS)