Development of Human Capital to Improve Investment Attractiveness of Regions

Dynamics of the changing volume of accumulated foreign investment in Russian economy in 2005–2013 was characterized with positive growth rates. In 2013 the investment volume increased by 6%, comparing to the previous year, and amounted to 384.1 billion dollars. Moscow and Sakhalin Region had the greatest investment attractiveness among all subjects of the Russian Federation in 2013. The second group included five regions: Belgorod, Moscow and Tyumen regions, St. Petersburg and the Republic of Tatarstan. These subjects of the Russian Federation also have high investment potential; however, based on certain criteria, they were included in the second group in the given rating.

In 2011 the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, according to the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation, developed the Standard of activities of executive authorities of Russian Federation subjects on creation of favourable investment climate. One of conditions having favourable impact on formation of regions’ investment attractiveness was a high level of workforce competence. Thus, the need in measures on development of human capital was enshrined in the level of state standards, which promoted attracting a wide range of specialists in the field of education and professional advanced training to solve this problem.

Impact of quality of labour resources on key national economy indicators can hardly be overestimated: it is not by chance that regions, leading in the rating of investment attractiveness of subjects of the Russian Federation, have the highest human development indices in Russia. Human development index is the index calculated by experts of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) based on data of research of the level of life, education and longevity of population of different territories.

The first place in the rating regions of the Russian Federation according to the human development index is occupied by Moscow. The value of the given index for the capital of Russia is 0.931 out of 1.0 max. The second place is shared by St. Petersburg and Tyumen Region (0.887 each). They are followed by Sakhalin and Belgorod regions. The Republic of Tatarstan, included in the group of administrative-territorial entities with high investment attractiveness in the rating of regions, is also characterized with a high level of human potential development (0.846, according to the UNDP expert group).

Thus, quite an exact correspondence between ratings of investment attractiveness of regions and their levels of human development testifies to a relevant interaction between these two characteristics. Certainly, notions of human capital and human potential are not interchangeable. These terms correlate as a part and the whole. Nevertheless, the level of people’s professional training directly influences economic indicators of a region, which jointly form its investment attractiveness.