Deputy Industry Minister Maxim Bystrov will be appointed deputy presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District with responsibility for economic issues, respected business daily Vedomosti reports, citing members of the delegation and the government. The document on his employment has not yet been signed but Bystrov has already begun to carry out his duties, the government official said.
According to a source close to the office of presidential envoy Alexander Khloponin, as a deputy minister for regional development in 2007-08, Bystrov was quick to set up a investment fund and supervise Olympstroy, and before that was deputy head of Federal Agency for Management of Special Economic Zones. Earlier, at a meeting on the development of the district on February 27, Khloponin suggested the law on Special Economic Zones should be changed for the sake of the North Caucasus, to attract investors and to employ North Caucasus residents on the major construction projects outside the district.
In government, Bystrov was engaged in electricity production. Meanwhile, a preliminary analysis showed that the main sectors in the district’s economy are tourism, agriculture and energy, but not industry, except for the production of building materials, the source said. He added that although there is the temptation is to attract investors to the Caucasus using Khloponin’s personal connections, the main economic task is more difficult: to create the conditions for the creation of businesses in the district. At a February meeting in North Ossetia, Khloponin declared that he supports the development of a system of cascading hydroelectric power plants, which will help to make the region energy self-sufficient.
The head of Federal Security Service of North Ossetia, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Shvetsov, was appointed Khloponin’s deputy on security issues, a source close to Federal Security Service and an officer of the representative’s office said.
The remaining two of Khloponin’s deputies are Yury Oleynikov and Vadim Parshin, respectively responsible for domestic and foreign policy, and administrative-economic questions, added the source. According to him, the number of deputies is likely to increase, but as regards the staffing level of the representative office it will eventually be a few dozen people. As the total number of civil servants cannot be increased, the representations of the North Caucasus and Southern federal districts were taken from the staff of the latter in proportion to the size of the regions in each of the districts.
