Vedomosti: “Russian Far East: Focus on Asian market”
The Russian government hopes that the country's Far East will become a territory with an innovative materials sector and a developed transport infrastructure to grow into an economic centre in the Pacific Rim region by 2015. This, however, will require huge investments, experts warn.
On December 28, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin toured Russia's Far East, launching the first leg of the East-Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline and chairing a meeting on the region's shipbuilding industry. At the meeting, Putin announced the Strategy for Developing the Far East and Baikal Region until 2025. The plan "is aimed at providing a stable economy and comfortable living conditions," the prime minister said.
The Far East and the Baikal Region's key issues are the territories' economic and infrastructural isolation from Russia's other regions, the strategy developers from the Ministry of Regional Development reported. Labour productivity in the Far Eastern Federal District is fourfold lower than in neighbouring Japan, while local primary energy consumption is 2.5 times higher and electrical energy consumption is 1.8 times higher than Russia's average. Although Far Eastern regions produce 100% of Russia's tin, 98% of diamonds, 67.5% of gold and 65% of the country's fish, their share in the Russian economy is insignificant, the strategy developers said.
The strategy's basic plan for the Far East's growth is tied with the long-term concept of Russia's socio-economic development through 2020, known as Concept 2020. The first stage, scheduled from 2009 through 2015, aims at increasing investments and introducing energy-efficient technologies, as well as implementing new investment projects and raising the overall employment level. The second stage, according to the Ministry of Regional Development, is scheduled until 2020 and includes implementation of large-scale projects in energy and transport and increasing advance-processed products exports. The further development of the Far East's economy during the third stage until 2025 provides for integration into the Pacific Rim's economy and introducing innovations in energy and transport. Delivery of social services, which currently contributes to the migration of residents from the region, will be improved and put on a par with more developed territories, the ministry officials said. The share of citizens with substandard income is estimated to drop from the current 24.5% to 9.6%.
However, while analysing the prospects for improving certain sectors in the Russian Far East, the concept developers do not mention any new project that could facilitate the process. The list of the priority investment projects will be compiled until next March, with particular attention paid to development of the mining industry and transportation.
Other prospects and opportunities for Far Eastern territories lie in boosting partnership links with neighbouring China and Mongolia, with the issue treated in a separate chapter. According to the strategy developers, Far Eastern ports could handle cargo traffic from China's border provinces, while the existing reserve capacities of the local electric energy system are enough to sell energy to China and Mongolia, as well as the two Koreas and Japan. Foreign companies could open ship repair and maintenance centres in the Far East, which would provide new technologies and jobs.
The strategy was developed by regional officials on their own, a representative from the Ministry of Regional Development said, adding that the project involved 12 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, namely the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Khabarovsk, Trans-Baikal, Kamchatka and Primorye territories, Amur, Magadan, the Sakhalin and Irkutsk regions, as well as the Jewish Autonomous Region, Chukotka Autonomous Area, and the Republic of Buryatia. The Ministry of Regional Development introduced the document to the government for approval on May 12, 2009. The finances required for the strategy's implementation have yet to be specified. "The sum will be approved upon prolongation of the corresponding targeted federal program," the official noted, saying the document will be considered by the government presidium next year, "with no exact date yet."
The long-awaited document defines the prospects of the government's policy for Russia's eastern territories, presidential envoy to the Russian Far East Viktor Ishayev said, adding that the Strategy aims at improving the economy, education, and healthcare.
"It is good that a single economic area is being established," echoes Natalya Zubarevich, a specialist at the Independent Institute for Social Policy. Yet, along with mining industry it is also important to expand other sectors as well, Zubrevich said, noting that reforms should involve large cities and infrastructure first.
The strategy seems declarative, director of the Institute for Regional Policy Bulat Stolyarov said. Still, he admitted, it could not be different given the circumstances, in which the government cannot plan any long-term investments. According to Stolyarov, the program implementation will require "hundreds of billion of dollars." "Upon the strategy approval, the Far East economic policy will officially have its focus on Asian markets," Stolyarov emphasized.
By Maxim Tovkailo and Yevgeniya Pismennaya
