Saint‑Petersburg is one of the most actively developing regions in Russia. It has an enormous investment potential. The main advantages of Saint‑Petersburg are its profitable geopolitical position, its developed and diversified economy, and its efficient transportation network. Furthermore, the professional personnel and intellectual resources of the city attract foreign investors. These are valuable resources for making the innovations and industry development.
Located on the shore of the Baltic Sea, Saint‑Petersburg is contiguous with countries of the European Union. Among European cities Saint‑Petersburg occupies the third position in terms of the population (4.8 million people) and comes right after Moscow and London. The total area of Saint‑Petersburg is 1,439 km². The population density comes to 3.3 thousand people/km².
Saint‑Petersburg is one of the most important economic centres of the Russian Federation. In 2009 the level of the gross regional product (GRP) reached 48.34 billion dollars, or, 4.6% of the total Russian gross domestic product. Various international companies operate in Saint‑Petersburg such as Coca‑Cola, PepsiCo, Wrigley, Kraft Jacobs, Gillette, Bosch und Siemens Hausgerate GmbH, Knauf, Lucent Technologies, Sungwoo Hitech, Foxconn, Alcan Packaging, OTIS, British American Tobacco, Toyota, General Motors, Nissan, Hyundai, Scania and many others
In 2010 the volume of foreign investments to the city was 5.2 billion dollars. The leading investing countries were Belarus, Switzerland, Germany, Cyprus, Great Britain, Finland, Kazakhstan, China, Sweden, the USA, The Republic of Korea, and Belgium. The biggest amounts of foreign investments in 2010 were from France (1 793.1 million dollars), Belarus (at 606 million dollars), The Republic of Korea (534 million dollars), and Belgium (at 440.4 million dollars).
There are 52 consulates and embassies of foreign states as well as 3 international organizations (the Inter‑parliamentary Assembly of the Participating Governments of the CIS, a representative office of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, and a branch of the Eurasian Development Bank) in Saint‑Petersburg.
Moreover, a number of widely‑known industrial brands from Saint‑Petersburg operate on the international markets. Among those are Kirovsky Zavod; The Izhorskie Plants; the Joint Stock Company “Power Machines”; as well as enterprises for military and civil shipbuilding: The Northern Shipyard, the Baltic Plant, and the Admiralty Shipyards.
Such Russian both state and private companies as the navigation company “Sovkomflot”, oil company “Gazprom Neft”, the largest petrochemical holding in Russia “Sibur Holding”, the mining company “Polymetall”, the power‑machine building company “Power Machines”, and the most important Russian brewery company “Baltica”, together with many others, have their headquarters in Saint‑Petersburg.
Furthermore, Saint‑Petersburg is one of the most important transport centers and is located on the intersection of the transport routes connecting Scandinavia and Europe as well as central regions of Russia and the countries of the Baltics. One of the largest ports of the Russian Federation, the seaport of Saint‑Petersburg, processes 65% of the entire exports of the country. Saint‑Petersburg “Pulkovo Airport” makes it possible to get to European countries in less than 2.5 hours.
Saint‑Petersburg has been included in the list of the world heritage sites of UNESCO, and is an important European center of tourism. Each year more than 5 million tourists visit Saint‑Petersburg. The leading international hotel operators functioning in Saint‑Petersburg are Kempinski, Corinthia, ACCOR (with the brands Novotel and IBIS), Rezidor SAS (with the brands Radisson SAS and Park inn), Sokos Hotel, Marriott (with the brand Courtyard by Marriott), Reval Hotelligrupp, and Starwood (with its brand “W”), Orient Express Hotel, Best Western, Rocco Forte Hotels, and InterContinental Hotels Group. There are 646 hotels in the city with a total of around 28,413 rooms available.
Saint‑Petersburg held 145 exhibitions and economic‑oriented conferences in 2010. The G8 summit took place in Saint‑Petersburg in 2006.