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At a meeting with journalists, the Governor of Smolensk Region, Alexey Ostrovskiy, answered questions, drew the results of the year, and announced future plans.
 

30.12.2013 At a meeting with journalists, the Governor of Smolensk Region, Alexey Ostrovskiy, answered questions, drew the results of the year, and announced future plans.

December 24, 2013. The Governor of Smolensk Region, Alexey Ostrovskiy, met with the editors of the leading mass media of Smolensk Region and answered their questions. In the conversation with the journalists, the governor drew the results of the year, and announced future plans including investment plans.

Smolenskaya Gazeta: “When the budget was discussed, a lot was said about how we will spend, but not a word about how we will make money. It is no secret that the Region’s budget of 2014 is a survival budget. When and under what conditions will the region be able to have a development budget? How and where will we make money for the state?”

“I have said it many times that eighteen months is not enough to see the results of our work on drawing investments. Even if we brought a serious investor to the region on the first day when I became Governor, it would take at least a year to get the documents ready, a year to design the project, and a year to build. So it takes at least three years to build a plant, and then one has to start it and to make it work.

“Nevertheless, we organized work with companies that had already been in the region before we came into power so that now they are getting to the second or third stage of construction with us. And there is some serious success with some companies. For example, with the management of the Ostankino Meat Processing Factory we got to the second line of the project, and from 2013 to 2015 the Region will get an additional three billion rubles and an extra social effect, which is about 800 new jobs.

“We did a very big job in the reconstruction and expansion of the Igorevsky Wood Processing Plant. In particular, my First Deputy, Mikhail Yuryyevich Pitkevich, worked with the banking system because we had to help the company get loans for the project. From 2013 to 2015, about seven billion rubles will be invested in the development of the plant, and the social effect will be 560 new jobs.

“There is the Special Solar Glass of Russia company, which is building a plant in Vorga, Yershichi district; this will be built from 2013 to 2017. The total investments will be 2.365 billion rubles. The social effect will be 200 new jobs.

“In the Tyomkino district, we will start up a poultry farm with a Moscow company, OOO VirmontFood, which will raise broilers. The total investments will be 5.8 billion rubles, and the social effect will be nearly 600 new jobs.

“In the town of Yartsevo, we have started building an aluminum casting and rolling plant together with OOO Alyuminiyevy Vek. In 2014 to 2019, the total investments will be about 4.94 billion rubles, and the social effect will be 600 new jobs.

“In the Smolensk district, Tander, a Krasnodar company that owns the Magnit retail network, will be building a distribution center. The project will be completed by 2016, the investments will amount to half a billion rubles, and the social effect will be 500 new jobs.

“In the Safonovo, Gagarin, and Kardymovo districts, in Smolensk, and in many other municipalities there is implementation of investment projects going on in cooperation with the Region administration. I am very happy to announce this to such a wide audience for the first time. There is work going on even through we are not trying to make it public. We are trying to bring more and more money and companies to the region every day. This is not easy, but we already did a lot, and I am sure we can do a lot more.”

“Do the investors register in the region as taxpayers?”

“Most companies do register here. This is a fundamental thing for me and the administration of the region. I am sincerely happy that we have reached an agreement with Fresenius, the world-famous concern, on building a dialysis center in Smolensk. This also means many million rubles of investments, many jobs, and, more importantly, quality medical care for the people. We have convinced them, and they will open up a subsidiary here. This is because it is important for us to make the region’s tax base stronger.”