Izvestia: "The privileged zone"
Vladimir Putin invites foreign investors to Russia's regions.
Special economic zones must continue granting privileges and benefits, and foreign companies must be encouraged to become residents there, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on incentives for regional innovation in Tomsk. Meanwhile, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina proposed that the regions should set up technology clusters themselves.
Putin arrived in the eastern Siberian city of Tomsk, which is home to one of Russia's most popular special economic zones. He chaired a meeting there to discuss the possibilities of making it even more effective.
Russia has now 24 special economic zones of four types. Four introduce technological innovations, four focus on industrial production, thirteen focus on tourism and three include seaports. The Tomsk special economic zone is technology-focused.
Established in 2005, the Tomsk special economic zone now has over 50 resident companies. Most work in nano- and biotechnology. The initial investment plan was 14 billion roubles, but in reality, only 2.6 billion has been invested.
Innovation development is "developing rather successfully, but the scale of this cost-effective process remains unimpressive," Putin said.
It is often said that economic zones do not offer enough privileges to their residents. However, in Tomsk, companies pay no property or land tax and enjoy a longer transitional period toward higher insurance premiums to social funds. They will pay just 14%, not 34%, until 2017. Therefore, the problem must be how this works in practice.
"We must also continue simplifying administrative and customs procedures, in particular by introducing electronic accounting and declaration of goods," Putin said. "We should consider simplifying the procedure for giving small enterprises the status of a special economic zone resident, as they often find it hard to meet our requirements."
The ministers who accompanied Putin to Tomsk were also instructed to consider ways to attract more foreign companies to these zones. In the past, Russian companies preferred hiring qualified foreign staff.
According to Russian law, a foreign employee was considered sufficiently qualified if his or her annual salary was no less than 2 million roubles. Putin proposed cutting the requirement by 500,000 roubles. Moreover, since special economic zones are not a permanent project – in fact they have failed to show any of the impressive results that have been expected of them – the privileges and tax breaks will have to be extended.
"I propose to extend the lifespan of special economic zones," he said. "Today it is limited to twenty years. However, we understand that projects implemented in such zones are long-term, and we must enable businesses to plan their strategies and expenses over a longer period of time."
The prime minster also visited an exhibition where he examined local achievements. He saw a device that turned a TV screen into an interactive terminal, allowing the user to pay their utilities or to talk to the regional governor. Next week, they will install 2,000 such devices in Tomsk. If the users like them, the systems will be introduced across Russia. The appliance will cost around 5,000 roubles.
Then, Putin tried reading a flexible book developed by RusNano with a light that is capable of burning for 50,000 hours.
However, he was most impressed by the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals made of pine needles. The developers immediately presented Putin with a special sauna package.
Yulia Shestoperova
