Interview: Russia creates mechanisms to develop its Far East: minister

Russia has created a range of mechanisms to develop its Far Eastern region in the last 12 months and made them work, said Alexander Galushka, Minister for Development of the Russian Far East.

"It is a very important achievement," Galushka said in a recent interview with Xinhua before the upcoming 2nd Eastern Economic Forum, an event aimed at strengthening Russia's business relations with the Asia-Pacific region, to be held in Vladivostok on Sept. 2-3.

Even prior to the 1st Eastern Economic Forum, held in Sept. 2015, Galushka said, the Russian government had already introduced stimuli to making the region a territory of priority development.

It has granted Vladivostok the right to become a free port, created the Far East Development Fund, and provided infrastructure subsidies for investors to implement projects in the Russian Far East.

According to the minister, the government has also implemented a number of new measures, including granting land plots for free, extending the free port regime to ports of Vanino in the Khabarovsk region, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Korsakov on Sakhalin island and Pevek on Chukotka Peninsula.

Moscow has also passed a law on cruise shipping, simplifying administrative control and customs procedures and permitting a three-day visa-free travel by tourists, Galushka said.

All investors in the Russian Far East will enjoy preferential tax treatment, having a five-year income tax holiday from 2017, and then paying half of the 20-percent tax for the next five years, he said.

The government has also freed investors from paying the tax for extraction of mineral resources for the first two years, after which the tax will be gradually raised in the following eight years, Galushka said.

Galushka said the Russian government puts emphasis on private investment in its new version of the state program "The Social and Economic Development of the Far East and the Baikal region."

He noted that Chinese investments made up more than 16 percent of all investments attracted to the Far East over the past year with the new development tools.

"We are pleased that from the 100 billion Chinese yuan (15 billion U.S. dollars) invested in the Far East over the past year, more than 16 percent were Chinese investments, but we believe that this is only the beginning and this modest figure can be much higher," he said.

There are many positive examples of Chinese participation in the Far East territories of priority development and the free port of Vladivostok.

He noted the construction of a refinery in the Amur region by Chinese investors and the creation of the Russian-Chinese Fund for Agro-Industrial development among the most important projects.

Besides this, Galushka said, the two parties have been conducting a "fruitful dialogue" on the development of transport corridors between northeast China and the south of the Russian Primorye region.

"We hope this is only the beginning of a long-term, multi-faceted and mutually beneficial cooperation, which will enrich both countries," Galushka concluded. Endi