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Eastern Europe
March 31, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
The Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions are major logistical hubs, connecting the Northeast Passage with Europe and internal Russian trans- port arteries, says Sergei Shinkarev, head of the business council at the state commission for Arctic development issues. “The transport oppor- tunities are the drivers of growth for the regions’ economies, despite the strong mineral resources extraction sector,” he says.
According to Shinkarev, major projects aimed at the development of the region include the ship- building cluster in Arkhangelsk and new transport solutions in Murmansk. On March 27, Russian independent gas producer Novatek said it will invest more than RUB25bn (€405mn) in a shipyard in Murmansk for its Arctic projects.
Meanwhile, doing business in the Arctic region is challenging, mainly due to the extreme weather conditions in the region. The main challenges, ac- cording to experts, are the extremely cold climate
and safety issues. “The Arctic is a huge micro- region, which has special safety requirements,” says Shinkarev.
“Collection and processing of data pertaining
to the ice situation and climate conditions and threats linked to permafrost and natural anomaly, mapping and monitoring of the situation are the minimal steps that had to be made by all Arctic countries,” he adds.
Meanwhile, the government is expected to play
a major role in attracting private investors to the region. “Preferences extended by the government, in addition to economic gains from projects, is a major factor that is set to raise potential private investors’ interest in the Arctic territory,” says Or- lov. “It would be right to create special conditions for doing business [in the region] while forming tax, fiscal and social requirements for projects, as the costs of living and working here are substan- tially higher [than in other Russian regions].”
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