Russia will approve the strategic plan for the Arctic this year until 2035
Russian President Vladimir Putin today announced the approval this year of the development strategy until 2035 of the Arctic, a region that already represents more than 10% of all investments in the country and will increase.
"Already this year we plan to prepare and approve the new development strategy of the Russian Arctic until 2035," said the president in the plenary session of the V Arctic Forum held in St. Petersburg and which was broadcast on Russian television.
The Russian leader stressed the need for key socio-economic indicators and quality of life in all Arctic regions should not be lower than the average Russian.
According to him, the Russian Federation allocates more than 10% of all investments to the Arctic, and was convinced that the importance of the Arctic in the economy of the country will only grow.
In this regard, the Russian president has instructed the government to draft a law to implement a preferential system for investors in the Arctic, he said.
In particular, preferential interest rates, reductions in taxes on extraction of natural resources and facilities for VAT reimbursement will be used, as well as simplified procedures for the granting of land, among other measures.
In turn, Putin seeks to minimize the cost of transport on the North Sea Route, especially the payment for the escort of ice-breaking ships, so he wants to minimize the tariff burden.
The Russian president also noted that the renewal of the icebreaker fleet in Russia will continue, so that in 2035 there will be 13 icebreakers, including nine nuclear, and offered to foreign partners to invest in the creation of central ports in the final points of the Route of the North Sea.
"I refer to Murmansk and the port infrastructure in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky," he said.
The president said that the Russian authorities intend to modernize the port of the Arctic coast, including the possibility of organizing the traffic of ships sailing from river to sea.
Last year the volume of merchandise traffic on the North Sea Route reached 20 million tons, three times more than the Soviet registry of 1987, he explained.
Putin invited to work in the field of shipbuilding, communications, safety of navigation, ecology, mining and biological resources.
The president acknowledged that one of the challenges is to ensure a balance between economic development and the conservation of the Arctic nature.
Putin called the global warming in the Arctic region unsettling, heating up four times faster than the rest of the world, according to his data.
He also explained that since 2012 more than 80,000 tons of waste have been eliminated in the Arctic regions, and announced that "in the next few years six large objects that cause environmental damage will be eliminated, but stressed that it is necessary to clean the water of Kola Bay in an area of more than 200 km2.
"We will also develop a system of specially protected natural reserve areas, mainly the Russian Arctic National Park and it is important to provide additional measures for the development of ecological tourism," he said.
