Ingushetia has started the practical implementation of President Vladimir Putin’s decree, which was voiced in the address to the Federal Assembly, that the land must be used as intended and effectively, otherwise it must be deprived and auctioned off. The Republican Ministry of Agriculture told the Ingushetia newspaper that a special commission has been formed and has begun working on searching for unused lands in the state unitary enterprises (SUE) and farms of the republic. The work of the commission will last till March 1st 2016.
The Ministry reports that today SUEs have a lot of unused lands which have to be involved in crop rotation. According to its information, the Vezhary SUE has about 70 ha of such lands. Before using the land, it has to be cleared and demined, as for several years it has been a place of deployment of a military unit. The Galashki SUE and Magas SUE do not use about 330 ha. It was ordered to prepare the land for the next season of crop rotation. As for farms of the republic, 2000 of the 30,000 plots which belong to farmers are not used at all. Moreover, there are farms which don’t use the land effectively and get inappropriately low harvests. When the commission discovers ineffectively used lands, the lands will be legally sequestrated and handed to economically strong and promising entities through an auction.
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The implementation of the investment program of South Ossetia in 2015 has entered its final stage. Ten of the fourteen planned facilities have already been built. Sputnik-South Ossetia reported that Prime Minister Domenti Kulumbegov informed about it. He expressed hope that the rest of the facilities would be constructed by the end of the year. In late 2014 the investment program for encouragement of the socio-economic development of South Ossetia was adopted for three years (2015-2017). The document requires construction of various facilities and the organization of arrangements in the republic. The Russian budget will allocate 9 billion rubles for this – three billion every year. According to the Kulumbegov, construction of 22 facilities was started within the investment program. The pace of construction of 2014 was maintained in 2015. Kulumbegov also informed that along with the investment program, implementation of which is a priority, the government intended to develop other economic spheres. He said that the economic bloc of the government had a task to define the most promising directions of economic development. According to Kulumbegov, the government also plans to take steps on developing medicine, education and culture. In the social sphere, an increase in the quality of services will be a priority.
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The head of the Permanent Commission for Financial and Credit and Fiscal Issues of the National Assembly of Armenia, Gagik Minasyan, told Business Express about the prospects of the Armenian economy. His thinks that, in comparison with 2015, the new 2016 will be an economically difficult year. This is connected not only with the low level of foreign transfers. According to Minasyan, nobody can predict the development of the situation with anti-Russian Western sanctions or oil prices. Meanwhile, Russia is one of main partners of Armenia, considering the volume of Armenian goods which are exported to Russia, a decrease in the incomes of Russians directly reflects in volumes of Armenian exports to Russia.
At the same time, Minasyan says that, in the context of the drastic decrease of imports to Armenia, the decrease of export volumes doesn’t seem significant. During the first 9 months of 2015 the import volumes decreased by more than 30%, while the export volumes decreased by only 2%. He thinks that this means a certain diversification of internal consumption in Armenia and its ability to use internal production reserves in the current situation. “They are not large, and not everybody uses them, but in the current financial and economic situation we have to focus on internal production. There is no other alternative to the decreasing imports,” the economist said. He says that the only positive expectation in 2016 will be the intensification of the Iranian economy and market, which should compensate for the decrease in the Russian market to Armenia.
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Against the background of a reduction in oil and gas revenues, Azerbaijan has intensified efforts to promote local goods in foreign markets. The Ministry of Economy and Industry of the country is developing certain measures for supporting local exporters. Azerbaijani News reports that in recent years the country has achieved certain successes in the sphere of exports of non-oil goods. The volume of exported fresh and processed agricultural products has increased. There is progress in exporting chemical and aluminum products, construction materials, tuning cables, electric equipment, textile goods, furniture, and so on. Exports of non-oil goods reached $1.325 billion in January-October 2015, i.e. 3.7% more than last year. However, despite the positive dynamic, the share of non-oil goods in the general volume of exports is only 9.3%. The export balance of the country still significantly depends on oil and gas.
An important element of the support for agricultural exports, according to the government, is the formation of a network of logistical bases abroad. Next year the first foreign logistical center will be opened in the Kazakh port of Aktau. The Azerbaijani company Azersun Holding has invested more than 20 million euros in the construction of the center, establishing a modern infrastructure which enables 10 thousand tons of agricultural goods to be stored, including 2.5 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables. Azerbaijan is considering the opportunity to create the same logistical centers in other countries, including Russia, the article says.
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The branch of RusHydro in Karachay-Cherkessia is well-known in the republic for its charity activity. ‘Cherkessk – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow!’ informs that the enterprise has allocated about 2.5 million rubles to local educational, cultural and healthcare facilities within the Program of Charity and Sponsorship Activity. More than 2 million rubles were allocated additionally for support of maternity and childhood within the framework of the federal charity project ‘Born by Energy’ and for environmental projects. The money was spent on medical equipment for the republican perinatal center of Cherkessk and an ecological path was built in the resort village of Arkhyz. The company closely cooperates with the social rehabilitation center for teenagers ‘Nadezhda’. About 16 thousand children have received support in the center since December 1998.
