Russian business, which will start working in Crimea, can count on the support of the authorities. Vladimir Putin announced this on March 17 during a meeting on socio-economic development of the peninsula. The head of state added: now there are new opportunities for the development of entrepreneurial activity in the region. The Ministry of Economic Development assured that the entire territory of the peninsula is “ready to accept active investments”. According to the head of the department, Maxim Reshetnikov, there are no risks for business in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. Meanwhile, the meeting also discussed the development of infrastructure projects on the peninsula and problems related to water supply.
Progress
At the beginning of the meeting, which took place on the eve of the Day of the reunification of Crimea with Russia, Vladimir Putin proposed extending the state program for the development of the peninsula until 2027. In the future, it can be extended until 2030. At the same time, the president called for speeding up work on specific infrastructure projects. In particular, it is necessary to complete the construction of the eighth stage of the Tavrida highway as quickly as possiblehe is sure. Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev assured that working traffic on the last section of the road will be launched in the spring of 2023.
Meanwhile the government will additionally allocate about 20 billion rubles for the repair and reconstruction of roads on the peninsula, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said during the meeting. At the same time, he recalled that “last year, Crimeans were the first to enter the top five in the country in terms of the volume and timing of road construction.” Now 67% of roads in urban agglomerations have already been brought to the standard state. In 2024, this figure should increase to 85%, the Deputy Prime Minister assured.
Gradually, the issue of stable provision of local residents with clean water is being solved on the peninsula.Vladimir Putin added. According to Marat Khusnullin, there is no shortage of quality water in Crimea now. Furthermore, there was no need to build a desalination plant for the water supply of the peninsula due to the lifting of the blockade of the North Crimean Canal after the start of a special operation in Ukraine. The water supply scheme of the peninsula will be reviewed, since it is required to integrate the North Crimean Canal into it, Marat Khusnullin specified.
— Other infrastructure tasks also require a prompt solution, including the modernization of housing and communal facilities and structures, including the reconstruction of emergency and outdated sewage treatment and sewer networks. There is a lot of work to be done here. The ecological well-being of the peninsula directly depends on this,” Vladimir Putin added.
For eight years, serious changes have taken place in Crimea in terms of infrastructure development, said Sergey Tsekov, a member of the Federation Council from the republic.. This, according to him, is not only about the emergence of large projects, such as the Crimean bridge, the Taurida highway or the new airport terminal in Simferopol. The number of places in kindergartens has also increased several times on the peninsula and schools are being actively renovated, the senator noted in an interview with Izvestia. The issue of gasification of settlements is also being resolved. Its level in the Republic of Crimea by 2025 will be increased to 84.7%. By the same time, all settlements that are part of Sevastopol should be gasified.
Response to sanctions
The development of the Crimean economy is adversely affected by Western sanctions, which apply, for example, to the banking sector and the supply of a number of goodsVladimir Putin noted. Since the start of a special military operation in Ukraine in February of this year, pressure from the United States, EU countries and their allies has only intensified. However, the President is confident that the restrictions not only create problems, but also open up new opportunities.
– Including, now there are all conditions for large Russian business structures, which, frankly, used to be afraid of some kind of sanctions, now they have nothing to fear, now they can safely comeincluding, by the way, banks, to the peninsula and actively work in the region, develop their activities there, opening and mastering new market niches,” Vladimir Putin said.
At the same time, he noted that the Russian authorities intend to support entrepreneurial activity on the peninsula in every possible way, in particular, by expanding banking and financial services.
— In this connection one of our leading banking institutions with 100% state participation is Promsvyazbank, which, in principle, is already present on the peninsula, should already begin work in Crimea as quickly and widely as possible. We need to introduce promising product lines, lend to agriculture, construction, tourism and other key industries for the region, open offices and branches here, and develop a retail network,” Vladimir Putin said.
According to him, this will become a serious incentive for increasing business activity in Crimea and will expand cooperation with partners from other regions of the Russian Federation. The head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov confirmed that the entire territory of the peninsula is ready to accept active investments.
— In the current conditions, indeed, the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol has become attractive to many structures that previously assessed the risks– now these risks for working in the Crimea have disappeared, this is no longer a barrier. Therefore, companies are ready to go there,” he said.
Activating domestic investment processes and creating favorable conditions for domestic players to work in Crimea remains the most important task in the context of ongoing sanctions restrictions on the Russian economy, says Yevgeny Smirnov, professor at the Department of World Economy and International Economic Relations at the State University of Management.
— Taking into account the fact that in the near future Russia’s foreign trade as a whole will be limited, additional efforts are needed to develop interregional trade with the participation of Crimea. Finally, building an effective regional banking system and a regional market for telecommunications services that will be integrated with Russia remain urgent tasks, he told Izvestia.
According to the expert, in the first period after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, its economy suffered, because in 2014 there was a landslide decrease in foreign trade with the peninsula, transport links with the mainland were interrupted, and there were serious failures in electricity and water supply. Taking into account the fact that at that time it was already in an extremely neglected state, over the past eight years a lot has been done to develop the energy, transport, housing and communal infrastructure, he stated.
— Crimea easily and quickly adapted to the new socio-economic situation, given that all these years the peninsula was under severe pressure from international sanctions.. Also, great progress has been made in the field of tourism development, – Evgeny Smirnov noted.
However, these achievements were possible largely due to massive transfers from the federal budget, and the gross regional product is still below the average for the Russian Federation, he added. Many goals in terms of socio-economic development, for example, the development of agriculture in the region, remain unfulfilled, the expert summed up.
In the same day Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The politicians positively assessed the results of the recent talks between the foreign ministers in Antalya and Moscow. At the same time they expressed their intention to further develop mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperationincluding the implementation of strategic projects in the energy sector, the Kremlin press service reported.
Also The presidents discussed various aspects of the development of the situation around the conduct of a special military operation in Ukraine. In addition, Vladimir Putin briefed his colleague on the course of negotiations between the representatives of Moscow and Kyiv. The head of Turkey, in turn, expressed gratitude for assistance in the evacuation of Turkish citizens from the territory of Ukraine, as well as in organizing the safe exit of ships with Turkish cargo from Russian ports in the Sea of Azov, the Russian side noted following the conversation.
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