New indexes and criteria are included in the National Investment Climate Rating.

The new structure of the National Rating of the investment Climate of the regions in 2025 was reviewed and approved by the Rating Committee on December 19, 2024. The meeting of the Rating Committee was chaired by Svetlana Chupsheva, Director General of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), and attended by representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The rating structure has been updated in accordance with new national goals, best international and Russian practices, and proposals from the business community and regional teams.
The updated methodology doubled the scope of assessment, from four to eight categories. These include real estate, engineering networks and communications, business protection, business support measures, export activities, infrastructure and communications, human and labor resources, market development and competition. The 2025 national ranking will be based on 28 factors, taking into account 110 indicators.
"SME support" and "Digitalization" have become cross-cutting topics, elements of which are contained in each of the eight rating categories. As a result, separate indices will be issued to assess the effectiveness of SME support and digitalization in the regions.
Also, in accordance with the new methodology of the National Investment Rating, another cross-cutting element of the study is the regional investment Standard (RIS), which will be evaluated using a separate index of the effectiveness of implementing its elements.
It should be recalled that, following the recommendations of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Investment Committee of St. Petersburg developed all the elements of RICE in 2023. The high quality of the implementation of the St. Petersburg investment standard has been confirmed by experts and the business community. Currently, work is underway to launch a new, sixth, element of the RIS, a feedback system for processing requests from entrepreneurs. The mechanism will allow to systematically identify problem points and flexibly adjust investment policy.
In addition, when assessing the investment climate, ASI experts will take into account non-rating indicators: the effectiveness of procedures for putting a cultural heritage site into operation (in the direction of "Real Estate"), the effectiveness of procedures for connecting heat supply (in the direction of "Engineering networks and communications"), innovative infrastructure (in the direction of "Infrastructure, technology and communications").
The results of the National Rating of the investment Climate of the regions will traditionally be presented at SPIEF 2025.
For reference:
The National Investment Climate Rating evaluates the efforts of regional authorities to create favorable business conditions. In 2024, according to the ASI, St. Petersburg entered the top 5 of the rating.
The regional investment standard is a mechanism that gives businessmen an idea of when and how they can implement their investment project, starting with the selection of premises or land and ending with technological connection to networks and the preparation of all necessary documents. The purpose of RIS is to shorten the investor's path from the emergence of an idea to the implementation of investments. A description of the RIS implemented in St. Petersburg is presented on the official Investment portal of St. Petersburg in the "Support measures" section.