Competition to be first foreign resident of IADT occurring between major Chinese investors - Russian Far East and Arctic development minister
MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) - Competition for the right to become the first foreign resident of the International Advanced Development Territory (IADT) is occurring between major Chinese investors, Russian Far East and Arctic Development Minister Alexei Chekunkov said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 television channel.
Foreign investors who have shown interest in participating in the IADT will contribute to Russian import substitution and logistics development, he said.
"There is currently some competition over who will become the first resident of the international development territory. So far, several major Chinese investors are leading in this competition. One of them is implementing an integrated project for agricultural logistics, which includes crop farming, a port terminal and elevators. I believe this is one of the most important areas - exporting environmentally clean, healthy food from the Far East to China. There are huge commercial prospects here. This area has grown threefold in the Far East over the past ten years," he said.
"A second area is industrial development. There is a company that already supplies elevator equipment to Russia, but so far by importing it from China. The discussion now is about creating a factory on the Rovnaya advanced development territory, which is one of the first sites for international advanced development territories, located 20 kilometers from the Russian-Chinese border. An ideal place not to import these technologies, but to produce them within Russia," he said.
"There are quite a few projects in the queue related to equipment assembly. This includes agricultural machinery and mining equipment. These are robots, even quite high-tech products like lasers. And a new area that we are actively working on together with the Industry and Trade Ministry is microelectronics. And in microelectronics, there are our Russian leaders who are themselves ready to locate quite serious enterprises in the Far East; several sites have already been selected. But I am confident that the regime of international advanced development territories will provide an additional plus for attracting partners. Because the most advanced technologies - radio, microelectronics - today require international cooperation. Here, I think we will also work productively with our colleagues from China," he said.
As reported, the law on IADTs in the Far East (in the Amur region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and Khabarovsk, Transbaikal and Primorye Territories) will come into force on January 1, 2026. The total area of each zone must not exceed 20 square kilometers, and projects must involve the production of high value-added products and investments from 500 million rubles. The law provides for compensation of up to 100% of the Central Bank of Russia's rate for infrastructure construction loans, benefits on profit, property, transport and land taxes, as well as a supervisory regime with limited inspections.
Previously, Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev said that the IADT regime would provide investors with an expanded version of the full system of already established benefits. The preferential period will be up to ten years. The possibility of non-disclosure of information about IADT investors is also envisaged.
