Special Economic Zones Rolling Along
// Protocol
Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref read a report to the administration yesterday on the network of Russian special economic zones. It has been a year (plus a few days) since the zones were legislatively created, and they are now being created faster in Russia even than in India and China, the world's leaders in this area. It is still too early to call the zones a success, however. World experience has shown that such zones often fail. The Federal Agency for Special Economic Zone Management (RosOEZ) and the Economics Ministry have accomplished a genuinely huge labor with the special economic zones. After several months of preparation and a competition, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed the resolution creating the first six zones on December 21, 2005. Four of those, in Dubna, Zelenograd, St. Petersburg and Tomsk, were technical-innovative zones, and two of them, in Lipetsk region and Elabuga, were industrial-production zones.
First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, substituting for the vacationing Fradkov, handed general director of Severstal-avto Vadim Shvetsov the first residency certificate for the Alabuga industrial-production special economic zones in Elabuga at the administration meeting yesterday. Severstal-avto plans to produce Fiat Ducato cars in the zone at a rate of 75,000 per year.
Gref stated at the session that the competition for recreational special economic zones would be held soon, within a week of the signing of the corresponding resolution by the prime minister. He added that the number of zones and their exact uses had not been determined yet. “Private construction is now going up on the most golden and the most profitable sites,” Gref complained, “on which the most profitable real estate objects and tourism should be developed.” He suggested making the land around Lake Baikal, Teletskoe Lake and the Black Sea shore special economic zones.
Gref indicated in his report that the most complex aspect of creating special zones was organizing financing for them. He said that working with the federal treasure slowed down progress because it was extremely complicated and state money could come in unequal allotments or simply be delayed. RosOEZ chairman Yury Zhdanov has been able to establish a finance system that circumvents the treasury, under which the state-owned OAO OEZ company will distribute the federal money and act as chief contractor for construction in the zones. Finance Minister Alexey told the meeting that 78 billion rubles, 43 billion rubles of which will come from the federal budget, will be spent on projects in the special economic zones through 2010.
Gref stated that most of the infrastructure for the zones will be completed by the end of next year. There are many Russian and foreign companies that have expressed interest in working within such zones, Boeing, General Motors, Siemens and Alcatel among them. So far, the registered residents in the zones are OOO Sibur-Tomskneftkhim Scientific Research Organization in Tomsk, AO Zelenograd Innovative Technology Center and OOO Alfachip in Zelenograd, ZAO Transaz and ZAO Transaz Technologies in St. Petersburg and OOO ApATek-Dubna Scientific and Technical Center and OOO Lyksoft Dubna in Dubna.
Port zones will also appear in Russia by the end of the year.
Alexey Shapovalov, Petr Netreba
All the Article in Russian as of July 28, 2006
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