Overcoming imbalances in the provision of natural resources for the development of the World Economy: maintaining a minor role of Russian TNCs

Abstract

The article shows that although the threat of rapid depletion of mineral resources in the world is largely exaggerated, imbalances in their distribution and consumption are gradually increasing. On the one hand, globalization intensifies the competition of countries for resources, as the global development of recent decades shows. On the other hand, globalization mitigates imbalances through foreign trade and direct investment. The article examines the role of Russian investor companies in these processes. The research is based on corporate materials, official statistics and the most authoritative sources of industry information. The contribution of Russian oil and gas TNCs, companies specializing in the construction and operation of nuclear power plants and hydroelectric power plants, as well as leading investors in the field of non-ferrous metal industry was studied. A distinctive feature of Russian TNCs is the limited geography of their foreign business, especially in the countries of the global South. Usually we can see the preference of a narrow circle of countries which had long history of good political relations with Russia. At the same time, reliance on purely economic considerations is less pronounced than that of leading Western competitors. As a result, external shocks (whether political cataclysms in individual countries in the case of the oil and gas sector or sharp fluctuations in the international conjuncture in the case of non-ferrous metal industry) can greatly affect the scale of foreign activity of Russian TNCs. For the time being, it is more likely that we can still talk about the initial stages of internationalization of Russian business, which has little effect on the nature of global development with its investment activity. The article also shows that since in the future the scarcity of land and water resources will increase in the global economy, additional opportunities will open up for Russian companies to strengthen our country’s international positions. However, so far the activity of Russian TNCs is not observed there because it is limited mainly by the increase in grain exports to developing countries.