The Hindu : International : Russian regions merge to speed up growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

International

International

Russian regions merge to speed up growth

Vladimir Radyuhin

Voters in three provinces endorse move in referendum

MOSCOW: Three Siberian provinces have voted to merge, setting the stage for what officials said would be "Siberia's second industrialisation."

Voters in Krasnoyarsk Region and two neighbouring autonomous districts of Evenkiya and Taimyr overwhelmingly backed in a referendum the motion to create a joint province over two-thirds the size of India but with a population of just 3 million. With an area of 2.34 million square km it will be the biggest of Russia's 89 regions.

The merger, to be finalised by 2007, will combine the financial and industrial strength of the Krasnoyarsk Region, a major net contributor to the federal budget, with the fabulously rich mineral resources of the largely underdeveloped Taimyr and Evenkiya, which draw 2 billion roubles ($71.7 millions) in federal subsidies every year. Taimyr has the world's biggest reserves of nickel and platinum, while Evenkiya has major oil and gas fields.

Key to industrialisation

The Krasnoyarsk Region Governor, Alexander Khloponin, said the merger of the three provinces would pave the way to a "new industrialisation of Siberia."

Large-scale industrial development of Siberia began during World War Two when hundreds of industries were evacuated from Russia's European part to the East in the face of the Nazi offensive. The new region hopes to attract about $20 billions in investment over the next 10 years. The main investment projects include the development of the Vankor oil field, in which ONGC-Videsh Ltd. is seeking a stake, as well as several more oil and gas deposits, the construction of a giant hydropower station on the Angara River which will provide electricity to a new aluminium smelting plant, the building of several timber processing mills and the development of a multimodal transport hub.

The new powerful region will act as a locomotive for speeding up Russia's economic growth and a "bullwark against the creeping expansion from South-East Asia," said Governor Khloponin. The merger of three Siberian regions restores the Krasnoyarsk Region in its former Soviet borders.

The President, Vladimir Putin, plans to reunite a number of other regions that were split up when his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, offered indigenous ethnic groups "as much autonomy as they can swallow."

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