Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the president of the Republic of Ingushetia, is considered to be one of the most open to the media leaders of the Russian subjects. He answered questions about the socio-economic problems of the republic at the recent meeting with the reporters in Moscow.
The impacts of natural disasters
In late July the Dzheyrakhsky region of Ingushetia was in the area of natural disasters. The damage is estimated at 2 billion rubles. The consequences like those brought with a flood to the Kuban region have been avoided, because the major population centers are located on the slopes and the water was on the low ground. Nevertheless, we have provided the potential risks. High-voltage electric power transmission lines were cut off, and literally an hour later three high-voltage transmission lines collapsed. Once we cut off the gas pipeline, three or four hours later a few kilometers of the pipeline were destroyed by the water. The basis of the damage is destroyed roads and bridges. Today, we have restored gas and electricity everywhere (somewhere temporarily, somewhere generally), and sent documents to the commission of the Emergencies Ministry, in order to ask money from the Reserve Fund of Russia for recovering all the objects.
The relocation of people from the landslide zone
Funds will be allocated for housing and infrastructure for the settlers. Several tenders have already been held; contractors and subcontractors are identified. Work is already underway, but this year the weather interferes with us. This year, during only one month we could normally work. The heavy rains did not allow the builders to leave the ground. Now they work in two or three shifts. We already have the experience in this direction. We do not build schools and hospitals with these funds. For social infrastructure, we have no money. We are looking for funds and opportunities by ourselves.
The amount of 3 billion is allocated to us for housing and external infrastructure. This year we plan to relocate 807 people, and next year we should completely resolve the problem of relocating the residents of the landslide zone. There is a real dangerous situation, there are moments when all the houses fall to the ground. For decades, we have not performed maintenance of wells; we have not filled these voids with water. In 2010 I reasonably informed Vladimir Putin about the situation, and he promised to support us. I think by the end of 2013 we will resolve the problem of landslide areas in the republic.
The reasons for the lack of social facilities
Historically, the following things happened: when Ingushetia achieved the status of autonomy, it almost did not have any social and industrial facilities. Since that period there has been no special program or scheme. The Republic itself could not do it at the expense of its budget, and then there also were not any state programs. About 30% of our schools work in three shifts, and 70% work in two shifts. Today a federal target program for the socio-economic development of Ingushetia is adopted, and we also build the necessary facilities at our own expense; just last year and this year we built six schools and the same number of kindergartens, and every year the volume will increase and we will resolve the problem. I hope the program of the development strategy of the North Caucasus Federal District will be adopted, we have included in it pre-school institutions, schools working in a single shift, hospitals, maternity homes and other facilities which are necessary to the republic.
Investment
Investors will invest more than about 20 billion rubles this year. If in 2010 we attracted more than 600 million rubles of private investment, and in 2011 the investment amounted to 2 billion, this year there is a breakthrough. There are investments in agriculture, in particular more than 700 million rubles for the construction of a high performance elevator. We will enter into an agreement with the Grain Union, because we do not have enough grain for processing this elevator.
Another investment project is the following: more than 5 billion will be invested in a bottling plant of our well-known mineral water. The same investor is building a glass factory, a powerful logistics complex. He will make the reconstruction of the central market in Nazran, and the overall project of this person will amount to more than 7 billion rubles.
Other investors are working in the cattle-breeding complex and in breeding birds. There is also a project of wood recovery.
This year, investors entered Nazran with more than one billion rubles. This is building a powerful housing complex where there was a military unit and the construction of a powerful entertainment complex including entertainments for physically challenged people.
Tourism
Tourism industry is considered as an impetus for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. It is the production of meat, bakery and dairy products, national souvenirs, and service. Many people want to participate in projects such as family hotel, guidance and support. The development of a tourist destination will significantly reduce unemployment and replenish the budget. But the main thing is to show the republic to Russia and the Russians, so that they see a real Ingushetia and not the one where there are only explosions. We will establish ten percent benefit for the citizens of the republic, so that citizens of the republic, too, can spend their holidays in their homeland.
In the first stage, we planned to invest 20 billion rubles in tourism. As a whole, we need about 47 billion rubles in order to finish what we have planned. We are asking for 6 billion rubles from the federal budget for infrastructure, and the rest we will fund by ourselves.
The lack of lands
We have good demographic dynamics, so soon we will have to convert farmland for housing. So we now try to take care of the ground, to build more blocks of flats, to move away from traditional private houses. We begin to build blocks of flats for all categories of the population; we promote this project and ask the people who once received a private building or land to return them so that the investor build a block of flats. The owner, who returned his land, will get an apartment and pay half a price for it.
There are people who took the land and did not use it at one time. For three and a half years, we have returned about 27 00 hectares of land and resumed the farmland. Using their official position, the officials of different ranks appropriated dozens of hectares. We returned this land and, above all, we are building there facilities, socially and economically important for the republic. For the Ingush, his land is sacred. Unfortunately, he is ready to shed blood for it. The situation with the land also affects the mountainous part of Ingushetia, where every piece, every inch of land is worth its weight in gold.
