Is there enough shoulder strap for all investors – Kommersant

The balance of risks in the implementation of investment projects in the Russian Federation and the methods of state support to compensate them will not differ significantly depending on the industry. Such conclusions can be drawn by studying the letters of Roscosmos to the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance dated May 15 with a request to agree on the timing of the creation of a regulatory framework to stimulate private investment in space. The tools are already known – this is, in particular, the opportunity to establish the production of equipment and objects of space infrastructure under PPPs, concessions and agreements on the protection and promotion of capital investments (SZPK; they guarantee the invariance of regulatory conditions and compensation for part of the costs of projects). The list is supplemented by wide tax benefits (for VAT, personal income tax, social contributions, income and property taxes, as well as investment tax deductions) and preferential loans. Investors are invited to engage in the development of infrastructure, the launch of satellite constellations of communications (including an analogue of the Starlink satellite communications system) and the development and production of small satellites for remote sensing of the Earth.

The influx of private investors into a hitherto closed industry, however, comes with many risks. It is hardly possible to count on an influx of random private investments into the sector, despite the hopes of the authorities to see even foreign businesses among the partners. Most likely, organizations “understandable” to the state will join the projects – as suppliers under the state defense order, already able to work taking into account the restrictions, which are becoming more and more. Thus, space investors are likely to face restrictions on imported software and electronics, as well as increased requirements for the protection of communication channels.

In addition, potential investors in the “Russian Starlink” are unlikely to forget about the fate of private television in the Russian Federation or the tightening of control in the once commercial exploration. It would seem that the proposed instruments, especially the SZPK, should protect private money from such risks, but will the initiators of the projects of imagination have enough imagination to include in the investment agreements the obligation of the state to protect the “Russian Starlink” from a repeat of the fate of NTV, and the state to sign such agreements, is an open question, as well as whether the state is ready to balance security interests and commercial interests.

Moreover, the professionalization of investors themselves, who are now inclined to look not at companies and projects, but only at potential profits, may provoke the development of competition for capital between industries, which is unlikely to benefit the economy as a whole, and especially such “semi-open” industries as space .