There are 141 new resident companies in Russia's Special Economic Zones in 2023 - Reshetnikov

MOSCOW. Oct 11 (Interfax) - There are 141 new resident companies in Russia's Special Administrative Regions (SAR) in 2023, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said during a government hour in the State Duma.

"Last year, 83 companies moved to the SAR on Russky and Oktyabrsky islands in Primorsky Territory and Kaliningrad Region. This is almost three times more than in 2021. This year, another 141 companies were registered," he said.

There are now 277 residents in the SAR system. The Ministry of Economic Development said.

By mid-September 2023, there were 254 residents in SAR, the Ministry said. This year, 115 companies "moved" to SAR, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ilya Torosov said.

Special Administrative Regions appeared in Russia in August 2018. Their main purposes were the deoffshorization of foreign holdings controlled by Russian citizens with assets in Russia, and to act as an anti-sanctions measure.

The number of SAR residents began to grow sharply in 2022 after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions; before that, the flow of new residents to SAR was much slower, with 22 in 2019 and 36 by October 2020.