The “Mega-Projects of Russia” Economic Forum held in Yakutsk closed on the 7th of September 2008. It drew over 400 participants including 250 investors, business people and company executives, 57 heads of federal and regional government agencies, 20 representatives of public organizations and academic communities, and 94 journalists. Along with participants from Russian provinces, the Forum involved representatives from Germany, South Korea, China, Canada, India, the United Arab Emirates, U.S.A. and Japan. The Yakut economic forum was organized by the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) under the auspices of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation to kick off its debut. It emerged from international conferences annually held in Yakutsk from 2002 to 2006, which were organized to attract attention of the business community and federal government agencies to the problems associated with developing the unique wealth of Yakutia. In 2008 it was decided to transform them into a forum of federal and international significance to turn it into a platform for promoting large-scale investment projects.
The Yakut economic forum has brought about execution of the following agreements:
• Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and OAO Gazprombank to open the latter’s branch in Yakutsk and to take part in financing federal and regional projects on the territory of the republic.
• Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), OAO Sogaz and OAO RSK Sterh aimed at implementation of various insurance programs on the Yakut region’s territory and efficient management of production, transportation, financial and bank risks in the course of investment projects.
• Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Transstroy Project and Construction Company to establish the Transstroy-Vostok Corporation, a company, which will be engaged in design and survey works for transport construction facilities.
• Supplement to the Investment Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Federal Agency for Railway Transport and OAO RZhD aimed at construction of the Tommot-Kerdem branch of the Berkatit-Tommot-Yakutsk railway line.
• Protocol of Cooperation Intent between the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Ministry of Industry of Belarus.
There Forum was accompanied by a joint press conference held by top executives of companies participating in the project “Integrated Development of Southern Yakutia” and D. Aratsky, Deputy Minister of Regional Development; a press conference held by RAO ES Vostoka under the title “Infrastructure for Mega Projects of Russia”; and a joint press briefing held by V. Shtyrov, President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and D. Kozak, Minister for Regional Development of the Russian Federation.
At the Forum, the Mechel Group announced a possibility to attract financing from the state funds towards developing the Elgin Coal Field as well as the terms of IPO. Gazprom was reported to have received a license for developing the Chayandinsk Oil and Gas Condensate Field in Yakutia from the federal fund of strategic deposits under the order of the Russian Federation Government.
While discussing problems related to fulfilling large-scale investment projects in Russia based on private and government partnership, the Forum participants came to the conclusion of a necessity to delineate a joint body to manage such projects on the part of the state.
The Forum saw presentations of projects by the Heilongjiang Province and the City of Heihe, by BelAZ and industrial companies of the Republic of Belarus, as well as the presentation of a project to construct a gas-and-chemical integrated works in the Central Yakutia.
The “Integrated Development of Western Yakutia” Investment Project presuming a cluster approach to developing the territory was included into the list of large-scale strategic projects of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) among other forum materials.
It is assumed that in Western Yakutia there will be developed a territorial cluster including diamond mining and newly established oil-and-gas processing and gas-and-chemical production facilities. It is planned to develop the Chayandinski, Talakanski and some other oil-and-gas fields, to construct gas and oil processing facilities, to set up a helium industry and to continue the development of lumber processing. Apart from this, it is supposed to implement some large-scale infrastructure projects: construction of the Ust-Kut – Lensk railway, Vilyui and Anabar automobile roads; commissioning of additional facilities in the operating hydroelectric power stations, construction of power transmission lines connecting Western Yakutia with the Irkutsk Region.
The diamond mining industry is expected to build five underground mines (Aikhal, Udachny, Mir, Internatsionalny, and Botuobinski), their integrated capacity being 6.8 million tons of ore per year. Large-scale transition to underground diamond mining along with deeper deposit development will lead to decreased output in mines and increased diamond cost. Taking into account the objective problems, to preserve the diamond output it will be important not only to discover new deposits with high average diamond content, but also to speed up the development of alluvial diamond fields by smaller mobile companies specially established and attracted for these purposes.
Yuri Danilov, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Rough and Polished Diamonds Complex Economy, Institute for Regional Economics of the North (Federal State Scientific Entity)
