Comparative Assessment of Investment Attractiveness of African Countries for Russian Capital

In the Russian scientific literature there are no actual works on a comprehensive comparative assessment of the investment attractiveness of African countries for Russian capital. The distinctive feature of the study is the selection of factors and quantitative indicators characterizing investment attractiveness of African countries, reflecting the specifics of Russian-African relations. The role of Africa in Russia’s foreign economic policy has increased significantly in recent years. The number of events aimed at strengthening cooperation between Russia and African countries has increased dramatically in various fields. The Russia – Africa summit co-chaired by the presidents of Russia and Egypt will be held in Sochi in October 2019. Thus, 2019 can rightly be called the year of Africa in Russia. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these and other measures largely depends on the formation of a specific and detailed agenda (including investment sphere), and its formation requires comprehensive research on this issue. The author collected a significant statistical base of 32 indicators for 54 African countries (22 indicators characterize the investment potential, 10 characterize the investment risk). The geosituational approach developed at the Kazan school of economic geography is used for the collection and analysis of statistical data. The author concludes the most attractive countries for Russian investments characterizing by high potential and moderate risk or moderate potential and low risk; proposes to allocate subregional leaders (less obvious in the macro-regional scale) by the method of «sliding window». Thus, the study can be used for the formation of foreign economic strategies of Russian investors; it can become the basis for further comprehensive studies of the investment attractiveness or investment climate of African countries, as well as for more detailed studies at the specific country level.