What are you doing to improve and modernise
the economic situation in the Primorsky krai?
The economic structure of Primorsky Krai is really
important. We have a set of programs about structure
and balance changes in the fuel and power sector
- everything that concerns coal, electricity,
and the whole fuel and power sector. One of the
most important directions of our work is creating
an accessible business environment for small entrepreneurs
and we have developed both national and regional
small business development programs. In Primorsky
krai, small business' share in the gross regional
product was 7% and at the moment it is 11%. According
to the programs we are working on, our aim is
to bring it up to 15%. We will do our best to
make it 40%, like in Moscow.
The economic program on marine cultures processing
development is our next economic task. The fishing
industry share in the gross regional product is
35% at the moment and we believe we must bring
it up to 40% and even more than that. And we have
all the reasons to think so, through fish processing
here and its further sales.
We have similar programs on minerals and natural
resources such as timber. There is a number of
programs we are working on. There are no doubts
that the creation of servicing infrastructure
is also important. In Vladivostok, the service
infrastructure, including tourism infrastructure,
is relatively developed, but not in the rest of
the region. Its share in the gross regional product
is only 9% but we believe this sector has a lot
of potential.
Transport infrastructure - ports, railroads,
air and roads development - is another important
component. We should not forget about the strategical
location of Primorsky Krai. In this direction
we have the federal program "Transbaikal
- the Russian Far East" that includes the
Primorsky krai program. Transportation share in
the gross regional product is 24% and, according
to our estimates, in a five-year period of time
we must bring it up to 37%. We believe that in
any case that all the programs (federal, regional,
municipal) should work together in order to create
such living standards that could be better than
those in Moscow. It is important to have Russian
leading/the best living standards here, in the
Primorsky krai to encourage people to live here.
Growth of the gross regional product is one
of the basic targets of the Primorsky krai administration.
The goal for gross domestic product growth is
5%, but in 2000 the region suffered a 7% decline.
So what are you doing to increase GDP?
As for six months of 2002 the average national
growth was 3.9%, in the Primorsky Krai - 5.1%.
We must estimate everything correctly. Unfortunately
last year gross regional product decline was due
to decrease in bio-resources quotas and we understand
that our task is to develop bio-resources processing
in the krai in order to increase the gross regional
product. This is one of many factors but it is
the most important.
The Administration must create a good business
environment here for industrial and power sector
development. Producing costs a lot. It is connected
with high prices for power resources. Living here
is very expensive. This is a separate task for
us.
When President Vladimir Putin visited the Primorsky
krai, Governor Sergey Darkin did not ask for money
but he highlighted that we needed an access to
market services, to the Russian power sector and
to market relationships in the sphere of fuel
delivery since this would create favorable conditions
for business environment development. Thus we
would have some other projects linking us up to
the Russian power resources market through oil
and gas pipelines. The federal task is to construct
oil and gas pipelines to sell abroad and our task
is to get access to market services in the power
sector.
|
We have two tasks. First, to create good business
environment. Second, we must create favorable
conditions for people living here, make living
standards and opportunities better than in average
across Russia. These are basic conditions for
our region development. In that case we will have
investments both Russian and foreign. It is clear
money will not be invested in the region where
it is unprofitable to work. Then we will be interested
in protecting any investor and any investments
because they will work here.
In the previous years the region had a budget
deficit but last year, for the first time, the
budget was profitable. I think that this year
you will have higher profit. Could you tell how
you managed to overcome the budget deficit, and
what are your plans to increase the budget performance?
I treat badly both deficit and excess profitability.
A number of commitments should correspond to abilities
and we need to reach this otherwise it will be
deception. On the other hand, the profit we are
making now is a reserve fund to react various
unforeseen circumstances connected with fuel,
natural phenomena and cataclysms that, unfortunately,
sometimes happen on the territory of the Primorsky
krai.
If we have a deficit we lack funds and, thus,
cannot meet our obligations. So our current profit
has a particular purpose. We understand that we
should have some reserve funds because we may
have different natural cataclysms. Our team has
been in office for a year and only one year ago
we started creating the balance system and establishing
separate budgets for each organization financed
by the local budget. We have a few thousands balances
including fuel balance, power sector balance,
payroll balance and public utilities balance.
We have tried to create a balanced system and
it has let us cut several expenses that were not
very important. In addition to this, we worked
on increasing our additional incomes. We understand
that if we keep the situation like this and improve
the economical and budget infrastructure, the
budget will be spent only on current expenses,
so this year we are working on a program to change
and improve the economic structure of the region.
This year we are going forward with a construction
program that costs 33 million dollars, which includes
a road construction program for 17 million dollars,
and a mortgage construction program for 3.3 million
dollars. For the first time there are investment
programs at cost of 800 million dollars.
We should reach the point when we spend less
budget money per individual. It can be done but
we also need to change the structure. We are not
talking about decreasing payment to people - our
aim is to reduce the price for housing and public
utilities. We have agreed with the federal government
and we have or own Primorsky krai Development
Program until 2005. Since the Russian Federation
government backs our program, it is going to become
a part of the federal program.
Let us have a look in the future. What do
you think the Primorsky krai will look like in
10 years?
We have already had a look at 2005. I think in
4 months we will be able to look farther. We are
working on the development program until 2010.
From the economical point of view actions of the
Krai Administration are very important. We need
not less than 6 million people living in the Primorsky
krai and we are trying to create good conditions
for these people. We are moving in the direction
of development.
|
