RF Government gives general approval to state program of Far East development
The Government of the Russian Federation has given a general approval to the state program of the Far East development. According to the records of the governmental meeting, Dmitri Medvedev set up a task to conduct all necessary coordination of the program till April 2, 2013, the date of the meeting of the State Commission on the Far East development. By that time, the sources and their parameters are to be finally determined all necessary decisions are to be taken immediately after the SC meeting.
In particular, the Government has laid a special emphasis on the issues related to boosting of the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway (Transsib) and the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM).
Meanwhile, as Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Chairman of the RF Government, put it, current draft projects of the two federal target programs (FTP) related to the Far East including the program on the development of the Kuril Islands, do not foresee allocations for Transsib and BAM. “We need some RUB 100 bln per year. The Ministry of Finance has not yet approved this figure. However, without expenditures for completion of BAM and Transsib in 2016, we will not be able to implement other activities set forth by the program. We are to provide for allocations under these FTPs so that these problems were solved in 2016 and transport infrastructure, including Vladivostok-Nakhodka, Khabarovsk-Vladivostok, Transsib and BAM was ready in 2016,” Shuvalov thinks.
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov also marked the necessity of priority financing for BAM and Transsib.
A the same time, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, told that the federal budget allocations for the program made RUB 3.8 trillion which is about 14 times higher than estimated potential determined with consideration of the draft long-term budget. Allocations for the development of transport infrastructure are set up at RUB 1.668 trillion with only RUB 21 bln (or 1.3%) to come from non-budgetary sources. The Minister thinks that the program should envisage much higher share of financing from non-budgetary sources.
«As for tasks related to Transsib and BAM, they should be recorded, all this should be estimated once more,» Dmitri Medvedev summarized.