The timber industry complex is a traditional leader of the regional economic potential. A great number of sawmills, woodworking enterprises and pulp-and-paper mills representing the large opportunities for the investment activity are concentrated in the region.

More than 1000 woodcutting enterprises harvest wood nowadays. In 2004 the volume of wood in the forests that belong to the Agency of Forest Industry in Arkhangelsk region and Nenets Autonomous District constituted 9,4 mln. cubic meters under the attainable volume of woodcutting in the rated area that is 19,7 mln. cubic metres per year.

The woodworking industry is one of the oldest branches of the regional economy and it consists of more than 30 sawing and woodworking enterprises, which are basically located in the cities of Arkhangelsk and Onega. The annual volume of the saw-timber manufacture is more than 2 mln. cubic metres, about 80 per cent is intended for export.

Arkhangelsk, Kotlas, and Solombala integrated pulp-and-paper mills carry out chemical processing. In 2004 they produced 32,8 per cent of the Russian pulp, 8,7 percent of the Russian paper and 25 per cent of the Russian cardboard.

Deep wood processing is a priority now. The region is also interested in attracting investment in development of forest areas and building infrastructure in remote, difficult of access areas.

Fish industry is the major industry of the Arkhangelsk region. In 2004 the volume of the annual fish production was 120,2 thousand tons, the processed fish and canned fish output is about 92,8 thousand tons. The fish production is delivered to regions of Russia as well as is intended for export. Besides, fishery enterprises conduct hunting coastal sea animal, salmon fishing and seaweed farming. Seaweed is a unique natural material for pharmaceutical and food industries. A seaweed plant, the only one in Russia and CIS, is located in Arkhangelsk.

The industrial military complex of the Arkhangelsk region is a unique one in the Russian Federation; it has powerful industrial, scientific and technical potential. The State Russian Centre for Nuclear Shipbuilding is located on the regional territory. «Sevmash» and «Zvyozdochka» plants are the main enterprises of the Centre. The project being realised as part of conversion programme for industrial military complex is of great interest for effective investing. This project provides construction of the ice-resistant oil production platforms for use in the areas of continental shelf of the Barents Sea, and also building trawlers.

The The Plesetsk space vehicle launching site, the only one in Europe is situated in Arkhangelsk region. More than 40 % of all space vehicles launched from the Earth were orbited from Plesetsk. Nowadays space vehicles of military, economic and scientific purposes are launched as well as within the programmes of international cooperation.

The increasing attention is paid now to the development of the Russian northwest oil & gas complex. About 80 deposits of oil and gas are reconnoitred in the North-East of the region, in the Nenets Autonomous District.

With the development of the exploratory-prospecting works on the White, Barents and Pechora seas shelf there appeared excellent prospects for oil and gas sea deposits exploitation. The reserves of the Shtockman gas-condensate field are 121 mln. tons of gas condensate and 3,2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The Timan-Pechora oil-field region (ÒPR), based on the oil and gas deposits developed in the Nenets Autonomous Area is attractive for the investors. There work 15 subsoil users on 22 deposits out of 80. In 2004 they mined around 10,5 million tons of oil. It is in sight to mine around 30 mln. ton of oil by 2010. It should also be noted that this region is recognized as fourth most important oil field in the world. Solving of this prospective task proves to give a new boost to the development of the economy of the North-West of Russia. The Mesen syneclise that is located in the Arkhangelsk region, Nenets Autonomous District and Komi Republic is very prospective for search and exploration of hydrocarbon deposits. In 2005 “Gazprom” JSC started searching works in two licensed areas.

The largest diamond-field area in Europe is explored in Arkhangelsk region. In 2005 the Mining and Treatment Complex with capacity of diamond-field mining and processing of 1 mln. tonsper year was introduced into diamond deposit named after Lomonosov. It is planned to increase the volume of ore mining and treatment up to 5,6 mln. ton per year. Overall amount of investments is estimated as 345 mln. USD.

By the present time the report with calculation of reserves as well as feasibility study of conditions for the deposit named after Grib have been approved.

There is an operating enterprise that deals with diamond cutting in Severodvinsk.

The centralized energy saving of consumers of Arkhangelsk region is carried out by three power stations of “Arkhangelsk Generating company” JSC as well as by block stations of heating systems that belong to the industrial enterprises.

Arkhangelsk region administration pays a special attention to searching financing sources for implementation of giant investment projects that need significant cash inflows. Local administration has allotted a credit from the World Bank of Reconstruction and Development of 6,1 mln. USD for the project. It is aimed at energy saving and increasing heat-efficiency in two areas of Arkhangelsk. The municipal enterprise “Vodokanal” got grant and credit under regional guarantee from with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development for the project on reconstruction of the water-supply system of Arkhangelsk of 18 mln. Euro.

Projects of heating systems reconstruction and introduction of modern energy saving technologies are realized. Some power stations and enterprises of electric public utility start using wood waste instead of fuel oil, as wood waste is cheaper and environmentally friendly.

Projects connected with the usage of alternative energy sources are also prospective. The Arkhangelsk region is rich in peat deposits, use of which will allow refusing from the imported power resources, especially in the sphere of small-scale power engineering. The peat-bricking plant was built in Solvychegodsk.

Today construction of the gas pipeline Nuksenitsa-Arkhangelsk is in progress. This pipe will provide gas transfer to the region. Taking into consideration prospective development of Shtockman gas-condensate deposit, this highway could become a transport line for export and internal gas deliveries. Transfer of the regional energetic system to consuming gas will lead to a significant decrease of prime costs of goods and to more favorable ecological situation. The natural gas has already came to Velsk, and Velsk gas heating station, the first in the Region, was put into operation.

Construction of the first sample of floating nuclear power station is planned to be started at Sevmash.

The transport complex of the Arkhangelsk region includes all types of transport: sea, river, railway, air and automobile.

The Arkhangelsk transportation complex is very well organized. It hosts the headquarters of the Northern Sea Route, which reduces the distance for transporting cargoes from Europe to Japan and South-Asian countries by more than 40 %. This can be achieved by transporting cargo via Arctic seas not via Suez Channel.

The sea transport plays the main role in the external trade communications and in the service of coastal regions and islands of the Arctic Region. The basic cargo ports are Onega, Mezen and Naryan-Mar.

The Arkhangelsk seaport is the first commercial port of Russia, the cradle of the Russian shipbuilding and seafaring. It was founded in 1584 and nowadays is the second in the world (after London) in terms of berthing line extent.

The port carries out handling of merchant vessels, oil tankers, trawlers and other kinds of vessels. It has its own ice-breaking fleet that provides all-year-round steering of Russian and foreign vessel companies’ ships. In 2004 fright traffic of the port comprised 5,5 mln. tones, but it could be increased up to 8 mln. tones and it is of universal nature (containers, metal, cardboard, pulp, oil and oil-products etc.).

The development of the Arkhangelsk port is a complex task connected with both modernising the structure of the port itself with creating conditions for large-tonne transit container transportation and the more active involvement of the port into the transport infrastructure of the North-West of Russia. From this point of view the task of the construction of the Karpogory-Vendinga railroad is strategically important because it should connect the Arkhangelsk port with and Ural industrial area.

The construction of this railroad and modernisation of the sea commercial port will allow transforming Arkhangelsk into one of the largest cargo centres of the Northwest of Russia.

In Arkhangelsk Region there are located two branches of Northern Railroad network – Arkhangelsk and Solvychegodsk. The transportations are carried out in the following directions – Moscow, Murmansk, Êirov, Karpogory and Vorkuta. The density of the lines is 3 kilometres per one thousand sq. km.

The motor transport carries out the bulk of domestic freight and passengers’ transportation. Arkhangelsk - Moscow highway (dimension Ì-8) plays the important role for the regional economy; it provides automobile transport with an access to the roads of central Russia and other states. The density of highways is 12,6 kilometres per thousand sq. km.

The river navigation mainly provides inter-regional traffic. The extent of exploited waterways is about 4000 km.

The air transport basically carries out the passenger transportation, urgent cargo delivery to the geologists and forest protection. There are more than 60 cities and settlements of Russia and a number of foreign countries on a regional route map.

Guests of the Russian North are always welcome at the airport “Arkhangelsk”. In the airport everything is made in the way that the regular formalities take minimum time of the passengers.

The project on reconstruction of the airport “Arkhangelsk” is being implemented. After the reconstruction the airport will be able to accept and handle Russian and foreign airliners of all types including the heavyweight ones up to 400 tones and will meet the highest world standards. The successful implementation of the project will contribute to opening new flights and increasing passenger and freight traffic.

The joint-stock company “Artelecom of Arkhangelsk region” (the branch of the “North-West Telecom” JSC) carries out the various types of communication service in the Arkhangelsk region. The company provides telegraphic and telephone communication, radio and television broadcasting in the region. It consists of more than 20 structural divisions. Besides, cellular communication operators are being widely developed in the region. The leading among them are as follows: “Megafon”, “Telecom XXI”, “Vympel-Region”, etc.