Voronezh Region
The Voronezh Region is located about 600 km to the south of Moscow and is part of the Central Federal District. The region takes up an area of 52,200 sq km and has a population of 2.33 million people. The region's administrative centre is the city of Voronezh.
The mineral resource base of the region consists of deposits of non-metallic raw materials, primarily construction materials: sand, clay, chalk, granite, cement, ochre, limestone and sandstone. Inside the Semiluksky, Khokholsky and Nizhnedevitsky districts there are large reserves of phosphate rock.
The region is ranked 31st in the country in terms of gross regional product. Its volume of GRP in 2011 grew by 5% compared to the previous year and came to roughly 360 billion roubles. In terms of economic structure the Voronezh Region can be classified as industrial agricultural. The volume of industrial output in the region came to 282 billion roubles in 2011 (up 7.9% on 2010). The main industrial sectors are engineering, the electricity industry, the chemical industry, and the processing of agricultural raw materials. The major enterprises are Rossosh Minudobreniya, the Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Company, the Chemical Automation Design Bureau, Pavlovskgranit, and the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Station among others.
The volume of agricultural output in the region in 2011 went up by 50% compared to previous years and came to over 118 billion roubles in absolute terms. The main companies in the agricultural sector are Lisko Broiler (poultry processing), the Voronezh Oil Extraction Plant (a subsidiary of Bunge CIS), Stevenson Sputnik (livestock breeding). There are also many small and medium-sized businesses.
There are currently 79 investment projects underway in the region. Their total cost comes to around 150 billion roubles. The most ambitious of these are the construction of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Station II, the reconstruction of the M-4 Don Highway, and the creation of the Armax Group manufacturing and logistics complex and the Agroeko pig-rearing complex.
The overall level of inflation in the region for 2011 was below the national average, at 4.1%. The implementation of regional development programmes and private capital helped create 987,000 sq m of residential housing.
