The North Caucasus development tactics

Pavel Martynov, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Yesterday President Putin met his envoy in the North Caucasus Federal District, who reported to him about the economic situation in the region. Alexander Khloponin mentioned reduction of the unemployment rate by around a third in comparison to 2010. “When we came, there were 486 thousand registered unemployed citizens. By today we have reduced the number of unemployed people by 197 thousand. Employment centers began working intensively in all regions, and we managed to create from 11 thousand to 45 thousand jobs in the sphere of small and medium-sized business.”

Ahead of the meeting in the Kremlin, Khloponin held several interesting press conferences with representatives of the mass media and tourist business. He presented promising directions for the district’s development.

Economic integration and possible changing of the NCFD borders

There will be no changes in the borders of federal districts after the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Experts discuss only economic integration. The territorial integrity of each region is not under debate. At the same time, the economy of the NCFD cannot be locked inside the district. Various integration processes are being discussed. There is no need to establish a new district for their implementation. We can hold a joint session of two districts.

Investment

Today none of regions of Russia are able to build their economies independently and not develop partnership with other regions. That is why the economic aspect of integration is very important.

“Investments have no ethnic or religious color; they are implemented on a territory with comfortable conditions,” Khloponin thinks. If companies come to regions and begin to build major facilities, it is due to integration processes. “There are only three regions in the whole of Russia that can establish their economies independently,” the envoy says. They have natural resources that can be sold, but the resources are taken by the federal budget for development of other territories.

Cultural cooperation

The envoy believes it is necessary to support not only ethnic cultures in the regions of the district, but also the pan-Russian, Russian-speaking culture, i.e. the support of the Russian language itself, as young citizens of the North Caucasus do not speak it perfectly. Khloponin reminded about the Soviet experience of translating and publishing  works by ethnic poets, writers and journalists in Russian: “We have talented writers; it is important for the Russians to hear their opinion.”

Tourism

Investment issues directly touch on tourism. According to the general director of the Resorts of the North Caucasus, Sergey Vereshchagin, by this time the RNC has signed contracts with foreign investors for $3.3 billion and with Russian investors for 77 billion rubles. The company signed protocols of intent with several foreign investors. The most interesting, according to him, is the protocol of intent with the Italian company Rizzani de Ekker S.p.A., which is going to invest in the building of commercial and hotel infrastructure in the resorts of the North Caucasus (up to 1 billion euros). A similar document was signed with Chinese companies Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd and China Ocean wide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. The Chinese partners plan to finance investment projects on the territory of Russia, including the North Caucasus tourist cluster.

General monitoring

In 2010 the Governmental Commission for Socio-Economic Development of the NCFD initiated development of a complex information monitoring system for implemented projects in the district.

The general director of the Corporation of Development of the North Caucasus, Anton Pak, stated at the presentation of the system that the main goal was to establish a platform for information cooperation between participants in the investment process, which would include instruments of economic analysis and determine the most promising directions for investments.

There is detailed information on each of  the seven regions of the district. The website publishes hot news on the investment sphere, as well as results of economic development, laws and documents which regulate investment business in each region, and so on.