Russian government approves 3 advanced development territory projects in Far East

MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. The Russian government has approved three advanced development territories in the country’s Far East, Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev said on Thursday. The vice-premier who also heads the governmental sub-commission for investment projects in the Russian Far East said the government had approved the Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk and Nadezhdinskoye advanced development territories. Overall, the Ministry for Far East Development received 15 projects for advanced development territories, Trutnev said. Russian Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushka has said 6.2 billion rubles ($94 million) in budget funds are needed to finance the creation of the first three advanced development territories in the country’s east. Private investors have pledged 50.48 billion rubles ($765 million) for advanced development territory projects. The applications were preliminarily selected proceeding from two key parameters such as investors’ real interest and preparedness to start practical designing and construction of production facilities and maximum detailing for infrastructure provision, the presidential envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District said. The firms Tekhnonikol, Nevada, Group Energy and MTE are major investors for the Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk advanced development territories that will be established in the Khabarovsk Territory while main investments for the Nadezhdinskoye project in the Primorye Territory will come from Nevada and Inkom-DV. The State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, passed on December 23 in the third and final reading a law on advanced development territories aimed at boosting the social and economic development of the Russian Far Eastern regions and single-industry towns. The law stipulates that advanced development territories will be established for a term of 70 years, which may be prolonged, if necessary. Within three years after the law comes into force, advanced development territories will appear in the Russian Far East and also in single-industry towns with the tensest social and economic situation included in the government’s list. Subsequently, advanced development territories may be established in other Russian regions. Advanced development territories will offer privileged terms for entrepreneurial and other activity. Specifically, the law stipulates reduced rent rates, priority connection to infrastructure facilities and free customs zone procedures. Advanced development territories in towns that inherited single industries from the Soviet period will be offered special legal frameworks relating to tax incentives, state control and reduced social security tax payments. Russia expects foreign investors in any spheres of the economy but will prioritize projects in power engineering, ship-building and infrastructure development, Trutnev said earlier. Read more