25 Dec 2017 15:24

Russia to create six more priority development zones - Medvedev

GORKI. Dec 25 (Interfax) -Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a resolution on creation of six more priority development zones in Russia.

"I signed the resolution on creation of six new territories of priority socioeconomic development. In this case, this concerns zones not in the Far East, but in other areas of our country," Medvedev said at a meeting with deputy prime ministers on Monday.

"The priority development zones are in Tambov region, Stavropol territory, Karelia and Tatarstan. We reckon that these priority development zones will attract a total of nearly 50 billion rubles in investment to the regions," Medvedev said.

Creation of the priority development zones gives the regions and specific localities the opportunity for additional development.

"This concerns fairly challenging territories where various production facilities must start operating, in chemicals, electrical equipment manufacturing, dairy combines, milling complexes, fish processing plants and several others.

The new zones will create over 11,000 new jobs and lower the reliance of single-industry cities one backbone enterprise.

At the meeting, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that priority development zones that fail to live up to their commitments for bringing in residents could have their status revoked in one-two years.

"We will get a better handle on what the term is; most likely this is a year or two. If residents in priority development territories do not appear, then the government will have the option of revoking its status," Shuvalov said.

"Together with the just-signed government resolution, 36 cities have special status as priority development territories," Shuvalov said.