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Penza Region
Geography
The Penza Region is located in the center of European Russia (the East European Plain) at a distance of 650 kilometers southeast of Moscow on the crossroads of the main north-to-south and west-to-east transport routes. The favorable geographical location of the region and its proximity to other large industrial centers offer ample opportunity for cooperation in the area of manufacturing and distribution.

Logistics
The Penza Region is an important transport junction of Russia. The geographical position of the region in the very centre of Russia makes it a natural crossroads for important routes.
The largest routes are federal highway M-5, Kuibyshevskaya and Yugo-Vostochnaya federal railways. They provide direct transport connection to the South and the West of Russia, the Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, the Far East and other regions and create unique opportunities for combined use of highways and railways. An extensive network of transport routes serves not only for local transportation needs but also links neighboring regions.
The International Euro-Asian transport corridor, Trans Siberian main line, goes through the Penza Region. The Russian railways of Trans-Siberian main line in general transport the majority of freight. Another important Transport corridor, North-South corridor, also goes through the territory of the region. It provides direct connection with European countries, the countries of the Persian Gulf, and India. This corridor joins Pan-European Transportation Corridor 9 (PETC 9: Helsinki - Moscow - the Black Sea - Southern Europe). A part of the North-South corridor lies on the federal highway M-5 (Ryazan’–Penza–Sizran’–Samara).
To satisfy modern and future industries demands to streamline transportation processes the government of the Russian Federation decided to implement a program for building multimodal terminal complexes throughout the country including the territory of the Central Volga region. These complexes will coordinate all types of logistic activities including transport interaction, loading and unloading works, short and long term storage, customs procedures, banking, information and consulting services. Several complexes will be built just within a radius of 450 km from Penza in Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Lipetsk, and Tambov.

Railways
Railways are one of the most important means of transport in the Penza Region including long-distance freight transportation. The Penza Region is linked by direct rail routes with all regions of Russia. Total railway spread in the Penza Region is more than 800 km. There are several large railway stations of the federal importance: Penza-1, Penza-2, Penza-3, Penza-4, Kuznetsk, Chaadayevka, Serdobsk, Pachelma, Kolyshley, and Belinskaya. Important Russian railways are crossed in the region: Kuibyshevskaya and Yugo-Vostochnaya federal railways.
Passenger turnover was estimated at 2949.5 mln passengers per km, freight traffic – 27404.8 mln tons per km (2004).
The most commonly transported commodities are refined oil products, metals, machinery, cars and other vehicles, chemical and mineral fertilizers.
The future modernization plans include lengthening of railways near the following stations: Kanaevka, Penza-3, and Penza-4.

Automotive transportation
The Penza Region is located on the crossroads of the main north-to-south and west-to-east routes. The major federal highways that pass through Penza are: Moscow – Chelybinsk, Volgograd - Nizhniy Novgorod, and Penza – Tambov. The federal highway M-5 goes through the north part of Penza. There is a direct exit to highway M-5 in Penza. All cities and districts in the region have reliable road communication. A total road length in the Penza Region is 9543 km.
The roads density in the region is 15.1 km per 100 sq. km. Goods transport in the region was estimated at 137 thousand tons (2004), passenger transport – 66740 thousand people, freight traffic – 7065 thousand tons per km, passenger turnover – 624577 thousand people per km.
Development of the transport system is one of the major priorities of the regional government. For the last years more than 800 kilometers of roads have been built in the Penza Region that makes about 15% of all new roads in Russia.

Oil and gas pipelines
Druzhba pipeline goes through the territory of the region. Russian oil Urals is transported for export to the CIS and European countries through this pipe line.
Samara – Gorkiy gas line goes through the region. Total gas lines spread in the region is 1258 km.

Waterways
The Sura River is the main river in the Penza Region. It provides reliable connections to Caspian Sea and many Russian regions, using waterways of the Volga River and its network of canals. The Volga River is the most important waterway which carries more than half of Russia’s river traffic.
The Penza Region has direct connection to the cargo port Sizran on the Volga River (through the federal highway M-5 (247 km. from Penza) and Kuibyshevskaya federal railway (251 km.)
Main alternative river ports are Samara (409 km. from Penza), Kazan’ (571 km. from Penza) and Nizhniy Novgorod (441 km. from Penza), all connected by railways and highways with all industrial centers and regions of Russia.

Airways
Airport in Penza is located just 15 minutes drive outside the city center. It provides direct flights to Moscow (1h.50m.), St. Petersburg (3h.5m.), Sochi (3h.10m.), and other regions. Its runway size is 2100 x 45 m.
The airport meets the requirements of the following types of aircrafts: airplanes of 2, 3, 4 classes (depending of aircraft takeoff weight); IL-76T, YAK-42, YAK-40, AN-2, AN-24 and all types of helicopters.
Future modernization of the airport will include:
• airport reconstruction;
• runway lengthening;
• widening of passenger platform, aircraft parking and maintenance area;
• meteorological equipment and lighting system installation.
It will allow operating passenger and freight aircrafts of the 1st class. New flights to other Russian regions will be introduced in the near future.

Communications
Postal Service
EMS and DHL are world post services operating in the Penza Region. DHL is a leader in express, freight, and logistics in Russia. Russia International Express Mail Service is a national express mail operator representing the International Express Mail Service in Russia. The representative of EMS in the Penza Region provides low price services for sending letters and parcels besides courier service and fast delivery service of items by means of EMS network.
Mobile communications GSM-900/1800 cellular standard is available in the region. All mobile operators in the Penza Region provide mobile Internet access based on GPRS standard and one operator offers also access based on EDGE standard.

Fixed line, Data and Internet
The following communications services are available on the territory of the region: local and in-zone telephone communications, trunk and international telephone communications, telegraph communications, data transmission, Internet access including dial-up and ADSL services, digital channels renting, ISDN (video telephony, video conferences), and IP-telephony.

Exports
The cost volume of export shipments of the Penza Region reached USD 85.5 mln in 2004 (increase by 51.1% if compared to 2003). The export to far-abroad countries grew from USD 30.0 to 36.7 mln (22.3% growth), and that to the CIS countries – from USD 26.7 to 48.8 mln (increase by 83%).
The export’s share to far-abroad countries made 42.9% from the total export’s volume and that to the CIS countries – 57.1% (as a reference: in 2003 the shares were 52.9% & 47.1% accordingly; in 2002 – 63.5% & 36.5%). For the first time the volumes of Penza export to the CIS countries exceeded the export volume to far-abroad countries (by USD 12.1 mln).
The export of goods made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals increased by five times; the shipments of the wood-processing complex products grew by 33.5%, as well as the export of industrial goods (by 32%), that of chemical and oil-chemical complex (by 25,4%), the export of machine-building products (by 12.8%). Though, there was a 27.5% decrease in export volume by foodstuff goods and raw materials for their production article and some other commodity positions.

Imports
The volume of import purchases of the Penza Region in 2004 was up to USD 79.2 mln (16.1% growth in comparison to 2003) including the import from far-abroad countries for USD 63.2 mln (increase by 6.4%), and that from the CIS countries – USD 16.0 mln (growth by 1.8 times).
The share of import from far-abroad countries in the total volume of Penza import in 2004 made 79.8%, and that from the CIS countries – 20.2% (in 2003 they were 87.1% & 12.9% correspondingly, in 2002 – 88.1% & 11.9%).
In 2004 if compared to 2003 the import of the wood-processing complex’s products increased by three times. The import of goods made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals grew by 36.1%; that one of textile materials & fabrics – by 31.4%, that of foodstuff goods and raw materials for their production – by 18.1%; that of machine-building products – by 15.0%.

PAID