Foundation date:
December 1, 2005
Administrative centre:
Perm city
Total area:
160,3 thousand km²
Population:
2,95 mln people

Neighbours - Bashkortostan Republic, Udmurtia Republic, Komi Republic, Sverdlovsk region.

The Perm krai is situated on the western side of the Urals on the banks of one of the most picturesque rivers called Kama. The location of the krai explains another name of the krai rooting from the Kama river which is Prikamye. The Perm krai is the eastmost territory of Europe bordering on Asia.

The Perm krai is dotted through with 25 towns, 27 administrative districts, 45 satellite-towns and 4010 villages. The distance from Perm to Moscow is 1100 km.

In the Industry of the krai the greatest share belongs to following branches: fuel producing - 22,5 %, machine-building and metal working -16,6 %, chemistry and petrochemistry - 16 %, electric power - 13,2 %. The machine-building industry is represented by enterprises of instrument - making, machine tool and ship-building, electric-power engineering, cable industries. The Perm krai is a world leader in manufacturing of liquid - fuel rocket engines used in the launch rocket "Proton-M".

The design and manufacture of gas turbine engineering for electric-power, oil and gas industries are ones of the most dynamic developing directions of the activity of the Perm krai enterprises.

Among competitive consumer goods the industrial sector manufactures gasoline and electric tools, road building machinery, electric and gas hot plates, railmotor cars, pumps, electric motors, enamelled ware, motor blocks and etc. The volume of the gross regional product in 2005 amounted to more than 300 billion roubles.

Prikamye is glorious by its natural resources. 60 per cent of the territory is covered by forest which is used as a paper, carton, plywood and fibreboard raw material. 200 gas and oil fields were struck on the territory of the Perm region, and over 50 of the said fields are currently in operation. Over 1/3rd of the world reserves is concentrated in a unique Verkhnekamsk deposit of sodium, potassium and magnesium chlorides. The Perm krai is a monopolist in potassium fertilizers extraction (100% of All - Russian volume).

The subsoil of the Western Ural contains reserves of non-ferrous and rare-earth metals: magnesium, titanium, copper, chrome, lead, zinc, tin, aluminum, nickel, manganese and precious metals: gold and platinum.

In the basin of the Vishera river a diamond deposit is being developed.

Though the Perm krai is related to the zone of risk-exposed agriculture, 80-100 % of the need of the population is satisfied by the products of a local producer. 350 thousands of people are engaged in all types of agrobusiness. The agro-industrial complex is a priority sector and subsidized by the region's budget.

In the Perm krai transcontinental railways, automobile roads and air routes run crossed. Through a number of channels there is an access to five seas. Apart from Russian airlines LUFTHANSA schedules its flights to Perm as well. The recently put in commission highway bridge over the Kama river is 14 km long and among the tree biggest hydraulic engineering works of the Russian Federation.

Being a participant of the international trade, the Western Ural has partners in more than 100 countries of the world. It exports the products of fuel and energy sector, chemical industry, cast iron, rolled metal, bimetals, ferroalloys, magnesium, titanium and their alloys. A joint venture for Boeing component parts and units manufacture is being created at VSMPO-Avisma.

The main accent in the timber export is laid onto lumber, plywood, newsprint supply. The Perm region is reckoned to be one of the biggest Russian exporters of news prints.

For the sake of the smooth economic activity the Perm region has a substantial remedy provided by a representative of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, Perm Customs with a network of customs checkpoints. One of the constituents of the regional administration is the department of international and foreign economic relations; administrative bodies in regional towns have analogous divisions and representations as well.

Active contributors into the external economic life of the Perm region are the Perm Chamber of Commerce and Industry rendering all kinds of services for foreign economic activity and the exhibition center Permskaya Yarmarka which disposes modern exhibition halls and runs annually more than 25 exhibitions and fairs most of them with international participation.

More than 300 alien-invested companies are in operation on the territory of the Perm krai. A stable economic situation, a powerful industrial, scientific and technological potential, and an international tolerance all these have built for the Perm krai a reputation of the region with a favorable investment climate.

A good education guarantees employment that is why 13 Perm higher educational institutions are attended by 60 thousand students. The Perm State Technical University has been marketed as a regional innovation centre. The Centre of Technologies Transfer, the Centre of Intellectual Property and other innovation structures have been established and are in operation there. The Ural Department of the Russian Academy of Science in Perm is represented by 4 institutions: Institution of Continuous Media Mechanics, Institute of Technical Chemistry, Institute of Ecology and Genetics of Microorganisms and Mining Institute. The cultural life of Prikamye is always an eventful one. The Perm ballet is globally recognized. And 10 professional theaters perform their activity in the Perm krai.

For the purpose of innovation projects supporting already in 2003 in the region the fund of venture capital investments promoting was established. And last year the competition on regional venture funds held by the Ministry for Economic Development of Russia was won. Resources of this fund have been invested in enterprises of the sphere of telecommunication, new materials, and creation of highly technological service companies for Russian railways. Recently the project for a science park creating on the sites of the Technical University and Experimental Design Bureau "Temp" is under development. The fact that the Perm State University has won a federal competition for carrying-out a program in innovation education is rather important for science and innovations development in the krai. This is another significant point of innovation activity on the map of the krai. The victory of the Perm State University in the competition of innovation high schools is a step towards the coordination of the whole system of education with the task of the region innovation development.