INVESTMENT ACTIVITY OF PENZA REGION AS A DEFINING FORCE IN THE ECONOMIC BASIS OF THE STATUTORY STRUCTURE OF THE REGION
Background. One of the components of the economic basis is the investment process. Ideally, the priority investment areas must meet the existing potential of the region (to be attractive to investors) and to consider trends and desired directions of development of the region (in order to be attractive for the administration, implementing the development strategy of the region). Determination of the priority directions of development by the authorities displays the existing opportunities in the region, and formation of a vision of the direction of development of the region. The article presents the main directions of investment activity of the Penza region and considers priority objectives of investment in the region, as an important part of the economic basis of the statutory system. The author analyzed availability of specified information to the interested parties, the factors of the dynamic development of the investment strategy of the Penza region. Materials and methods. The research task was achieved on the basis of the analysis of the legislative acts of the Russian Federation and the Penza region. The author analyzed websites of authorities of the Russian Federation subjects - Voronezh, Rostov, Omsk, Kaluga regions. The work analyzes scientific articles by pro­minent scholars, lawyers and practitioners. Results. The rise of investments in the Penza region at the present time is mainly caused by further formation of the legislative and regulatory framework ensuring protection of investors’ rights, improvement of the tax base, the success of the enterprise reform and implementation of the amortization policy, the increase of investment orientation of the privatization process of enterprises, attraction of people’s savings into the investment sphere, the increase of the volume of leasing activity, promotion of the inflow of foreign capital. The government is interested in attracting investments, including foreign ones, primarily for development of the production of exportable and import-substituting products. Conclusions. The measures implemented in the Penza region are aimed at attraction and protection of investments, including foreign ones; the government supports free movement of goods, services, information, financial resources, freedom of economic activity. In order to attract investments to the region since 2000 there has been implemented the Patronage certificate of the Governor of the Penza region. So far there has been issued 20 such certificates. The beneficiaries are the companies that implement large and socially important projects within the region. The main objective of the investment policy of the Penza region in the near future is to improve the efficiency of investments in production, allowing to create products competitive on the domestic and foreign markets, and maintaining the growth stage on the basis thereof.