Orenburg Region
The Orenburg Region, one of Russia's major regions, is part of the Volga Federal District. It covers an area of 124,000 square kilometers and has a population of 2.113 million, including an urban population of 1,216,000 (57.4%) and a rural population of 900,300 (42.6%).
Neighbouring the Orenburg Region are the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan and the Chelyabinsk and Samara regions. In its southeast, the Orenburg Region shares a 1,876 km long state border with the Republic of Kazakhstan.
There are more than 2,500 proven deposits of 75 types of mineral resources in the region. The gas, oil, and power industries, along with metallurgy and mechanical engineering, form the cornerstones of the region's economy. More than 3,000 companies operate in the region, including about 300 large- and medium-sized businesses, such as Gazprom Dobicha Orenburg, TNK-BP Management, Uralskaya Stal (Novotroitsk), Yuzhuralnikel (Orsk), Gaisky GOK (Gai), and the Mednogorsk Copper and Sulfur Plant.
In 2010, the region saw its gross regional product grow by 2.1%, its industrial output by 6.4%, and its resource output by 8%; 22.1 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate and 21.1 billion cubic metres of gas were produced; and 581,100 square metres of housing worth 28.8 billion roubles was constructed in the region.
Last year, investment in the region's economy and social infrastructure totalled 95.5 billion roubles. The bulk of investment was poured into projects aimed at:
- radically modernising Yuzhuralnikel plant, currently controlled by Mechel Group;
- launching the joint manufacture of aluminium heat exchangers for motor vehicles at the Radiator Plant in Buguruslan in conjunction with foreign investors; and
- building a cement plant using fluxing limestone from the Akkerman deposit and Ural Steel's metallurgical waste. The plant to be built by South Ural Mining Company will produce 2.6 million tonnes of cement a year.
About 30% of the region's industrial production is export-oriented, and it has trade relations with more than 80 countries. The Orenburg Region is among twenty constituents members of the Russian Federation considered most attractive for foreign investors; its external economic activities supply one-fifth of its gross regional product.
The region has been carrying out some major projects jointly with the world's leading transnational corporations, including Britain's BP, France's Schneider Electric, America's John Deere, Italy's Merloni Progetti, and Germany's Dyckerhoff AG.
The adverse weather conditions of the past year hit farming hard in the region, which accounts for 5.5% of all Russian farmland. As cultivated areas shrank due to low rainfall during the sowing campaign in the spring of 2010 and the drought in the summer, gross grain yield dwindled to only 739,600 tonnes, down 70% from 2009. Crops were damaged across an area of 1.7 million hectares. The resulting loss of over a third of the vegetable harvest and more than half of the potato harvest have pushed up the prices of several staple foodstuffs. The highest price rise was registered for cereals (the price of buckwheat rose by 240% and that of millet by 110%), fruits and vegetables (potatoes and carrots by 120% and white cabbages by 130%), sunflower oil (42.6%), and milk and dairy products (30%). The price of bakery foods was up 7.6%.
In 2010, the average monthly wages in the region topped 14,700 roubles, up more than 10%. As of January 1, 2011, the arrears of wages stood at 10.9 million roubles, including 9 million roubles (82%) unpaid by companies that have filed for bankruptcy. Average pensions rose 50%, and the unemployment rate dropped to 1.3% from 1.9% in April 2010.
People of more than 100 nationalities and 18 faiths live in the Orenburg Region. The region is a major cultural, scientific, and educational centre of the Volga Federal District. More than 85,000 students, majoring in 125 subjects, study at the region's higher education institutions every year, and its vocational colleges train students in 90 professions.
