State support of Investment Projects Within the Framework of an Agreement on the Protection and Promotion of Capital Investments: A Methodological Rationale

The subject of research is economic interactions related to the implementation of an investment project within the framework of an agreement on the protection and promotion of investments (hereinafter referred to as the APCI). Purpose: methodological substantiation of the expediency of providing state support measures to ensure the minimum profitability of an investment project implemented within the framework of the APCI. Objectives: to propose an indicator that reflects the minimum profitability of an investment project, the mechanism for its usage to determine state support measures, additional state support measures in cases where they are not sufficiently established in the legislation. Methods: analysis of approaches to determining the discount rate; statistical (observation, grouping, method of indicators) for calculating industry-specific ROIC values; content analysis to select state support measures. Results: it is proposed to use the ROIC indicator as the minimum profitability of a commercial investment project. The indicator was calculated according to the data of all organizations that are not subjects of medium and small enterprises operating in the period 2012–2021. The sample included 133 organizations that make up eight subclasses of Russian classifier of types of economic activity (pulp and paper production; production of fertilizers and nitrogen compounds; production of pesticides, etc.; production of paints, varnishes, etc.; production of pharmaceutical substances; production of medicines; activities in the field of telecommunications; development of computer software). Based on the data from 1011 observations, the median value of ROIC for each subclass was calculated, the reliability of which is confirmed by the approved minimum rates of return on invested capital for calculating the tariffs of regulated organizations. A mechanism is proposed for using ROIC to determine state support measures within the framework of the APCI, including: determining the median value of ROIC for foreign economic activity, calculating ROIC for an investment project, and determining state support measures by their ratio. As additional measures of state support within the framework of the APCI, it is proposed to establish tax preferences (lower tax rates, tax benefits, tax deductions), as well as accelerated depreciation of fixed assets. The proposed developments create a methodological basis for substantiating the provision of various state support measures within the framework of the APCI.