Five Seas and Lake Baikal project to create seaside resorts in 9 Russian regions - economic development minister

MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - The Five Seas and Lake Baikal project will make it possible to create new sea resorts and infrastructure for recreation in nine regions, while the volume of investment in the project is estimated at 100 billion rubles up to 2030, Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said on Thursday.

"For us, new major points of attraction, tourist magnets across the country are also extremely relevant. The Five Seas and Lake Baikal project, which was launched at your initiative, will address this task. These are large-scale projects for the comprehensive development of territories on the sea coasts in nine regions of the country," he said at a meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin and dedicated to the project.

Such projects imply the creation of a modern environment and comfortable conditions for recreation, "what is called for any purse," he said "Hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, children's sports centers, park areas and, of course, beaches. All of this will have to be provided with transport and engineering infrastructure and in some cases we will have to resolve issues that have built up over years prior to this, but it is primarily the water supply and drainage, storm water drainage all around on these coasts," he said.

Reshetnikov noted that such projects require a concentration of resources, and overall, a large amount of money is planned for infrastructure.

"Under the national project, over 100 billion rubles are planned up to 2030 for these purposes. These are funds allocated on your instructions. We are also ready, if necessary, to allocate part of the profits from the increase in duties on wine from unfriendly countries to support seaside resorts. We have an agreement with [Russian Finance Minister] Anton Germanovich [Siluanov] that we allocate half of the increase from this source to support tourism, for additional funding of the national project," he said.

Reshetnikov noted that major infrastructure, roads and railways, airports, and energy facilities would be built at the expense of the development programs of the relevant ministries and departments. In order to build utility infrastructure, the regions will have to make more active use of available instruments - the restructuring of debts to the federal budget, and infrastructure budgetary and special treasury loans.

Reshetnikov added that there would be benefits and preferences for businesses as part of the projects' implementation.

"The resorts in the Kaliningrad [and] Irkutsk regions, Buryatia, [and] Dagestan will become part of Special Economic Areas. In Primorye Territory, the advanced development territory and the free port of Vladivostok will provide benefits. In Zaporozhye and Crimea it will be a Free Economic Area in these territories," he said.