Russia’s human capital gets its due in Krasnoyarsk

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – February 18, 2013)

KRASNOYARSK – Sony opened an Internet cafe in Krasnoyarsk last week. The coffee was free, the Internet and the computer use were free, but there were two catches: first, it was only open three days, and second, you had to be registered for the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum to visit.

“We’re here because the people here are our target market,” said one of the baristas, whose real job is sales for Sony, showing a Moscow News correspondent the Vaio Duo, a tablet that folds up into a laptop. “It’s proof that the forum is getting bigger every year.”

The forum’s 10th edition opened at the Sibir business and conference center on Thursday, playing host to 3,000 participants from 16 countries and 57 Russian regions, according to official numbers.

The format has developed unique features that many of the speakers commented on during the event. The first day, for example, was dedicated to the Generation 2020 youth forum, a reference to the government’s development plan for the next seven years.

“This year, the youth platform is taking place for the fifth time, and as an organizer, I am very proud that in the Krasnoyarsk region, the size of this event is growing from year to year, from one round table in 2009 to an entire day of business set aside today,” said Vladimir Zubenko, the chairman of the youth forum’s organizing committee, at the opening session.

Present and future

Major established companies operating in the Krasnoyarsk region – such as Polyus Gold, Norilsk Nickel and Rusal – had a significant presence both as exhibitors and
on discussion panels, but developing projects were also on
display.

Tourism, travel, environmental quality and investment were major themes of the forum, and not just for the Krasnoyarsk region. The republic of Tuva offered a look at a projected business and leisure facility complete with a hotel and business center for the modern world, as well as areas for visitors to experience native culture and performances and sporting competitions such as horse racing and archery.

A project closer to home is the 3.5 billion-ruble redevelopment of Yemelyanovo Airport, located about 30 kilometers outside the city of Krasnoyarsk. Maxim Balashov, manager of the airport’s development group, said that central to the plan was reducing the current “inconvenient” three terminals to two.

“[Three] is not convenient at all. We need more personnel, we need to bear more operational charges for heating, which is very important considering our climate,” he told The Moscow News. “The temperature range is very wide: in summer, we have up to +35 degrees, in winter we have down to -40 sometimes…. It’s going to be more efficient in terms of energy savings.”

According to a deal signed on Friday, Renova subsidiary Airports of the Regions will build and operate the new passenger terminal, while Interros’s Interport management company will redevelop the freight terminal, RIA Novosti reported. Current plans include passenger terminal capacity of 2.3 million people with International Air Transport Association service level C, on a par with
most European airports, Balashov said.

Local investment

Much of the focus for investment projects in the Krasnoyarsk region was on public-private partnerships, which are considered crucial for development in Siberia and the Far East. Another Russian region offered caution from its own experience, however, especially for non-profit-bearing, socially oriented projects such as child care facilities.

“The question is this: we have to find some way to give investors the possibility to recoup their investment quickly,” Deputy Governor Ruslan Zalivatsky, of the Kaluga region, told a round table on partnerships, calling for a legislative change to allow budget funds to fill the gap in concession arrangements where a project
is proving financially unprofitable.

A new effort to attract investment is an online one-stop shop for information on the Siberian Federal District, which was introduced at the forum by the district’s deputy presidential envoy, Andrei Filichev. The site features information on all the individual regions and republics, including their investment performance, and an interactive map showing ongoing and new projects.

National policy

In his address on Friday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev outlined five main challenges that lay ahead for Russia: strengthening the investment climate, enhancing global competitiveness, developing a modern infrastructure, implementing the use of smart technologies, and support for educating young scientists.

For the creation of a modern infrastructure, mainly for energy and transportation, he said that budget funds will not be available to pay for whole projects.

“We understand that exclusively budget funds will not come through for these goals,” he said. “It is necessary to use the potential of public-private partnerships.”

In addition to a tax increment financing scheme for public projects, Medvedev said that legislation for the use of partnerships in the regions had been submitted for discussion.

As much as infrastructure requires the cooperation of private and public capital, however, so does the development of social institutions, according to Krasnoyarsk Region Governor Lev Kuznetsov.

In discussion following Medvedev’s speech, which also touched on the importance of strengthening human capital, Kuznetsov gave credit to businesses in their cooperation with government in building social institutions, but he called on them to develop their stake in “quality of life.”

“Without quality of life, we will lose competition in investment in people,” he said. “The main thing is that we will not be able to find those people who should [present a solution] to the main problems, the goal being the development of the person as a whole.”

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