STAGES OF THE PRE-INVESTMENT PHASE OF MEGA-PROJECT FINANCING OF THE ECONOMY

Abstract

The article offers the author's description of the stages of the pre-investment phase of mega-project financing of the economy. The launch of this process was preceded by a thirty-year transformation of the socio-economic system of the Russian Federation. During these transformations, the previously functioning organizational and economic mechanism was deactivated. Its viability until the start of the special military operation was due to the ongoing policy of Reaganomics, closely related to the principles of the Washington Consensus. Determining a new vector of economic development, the Government of the Russian Federation selected 11 technological sovereignty projects for the first time in December 2023. Among them are port infrastructure projects, shipbuilding, energy, mechanical engineering, infrastructure projects, and instrument engineering. By designating banks as subjects of financing megaprojects, the state thereby promotes the development of economic relations using such a financial instrument as a state guarantee. To make a decision on their participation in large-scale investment projects, authorized government bodies organize the calculation of all performance indicators, incl. budgetary, financial, economic, social. If we are talking about projects that have passed the examination and are significant for the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, its initiators determine the structure of financing. When participating in projects of commercial banks, according to established practice, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation may offer a state guarantee of the federal budget as security. In this case, issues of the effectiveness of a particular project fade into the background. Reason: if negative results are obtained from the implementation of the investment project, the commercial bank will write off from the treasury account all existing debt on loans issued to the megaproject operator. But in this case, the amount of debt on the loan will be lost from the federal budget. To prevent this from happening, it is important to maintain a balance of interests of all participants in the megaproject. The role of the state remains two-pronged. When identifying “positive” and “negative” aspects of state activity, the gradation assumes the presence of the following structure: a) the “negative” aspect was determined by the acceleration of economic growth and was the basis of structural transformation; b) the “positive” aspect was that set of socio-political circumstances that determine growth from the fundamentally possible potential to the real.