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Russian prime minister begins trip over Russia’s Far Eastern regions

The programme of his trip includes visits to Magadan, Khabarovsk and Birobidzhan

MAGADAN, April 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday begins a trip over Russia’s Far Eastern regions. The first city to be visited by the prime minister will be Magadan, the press service of the Russian government reported.

In Magadan, Medvedev will chair a government meeting dedicated to the prospects for the development of Russia’s fishing industry. Participants in the meeting will consider the implementation of the state programme for the development of the fishing industry, which provides for measures to enhance the efficiency of the fishing sector, to preserve marine bio resources, to develop sectoral research and development. Apart from that, the programme envisages measures to prevent and counteract illegal fishing, to tighten state control in the area of fishing and preserving bio resources, and to stimulate the modernization of the exisiting and the construction of new fishing vessels and processing and storage facilities.

Before the meeting, the prime minister plans to visit the Magadan Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography. The institute monitors oceanographic parameters and processes in the Sea of Okhotsk and their influences on the dynamics and distribution of zooplankton, which is nutritive base for many fish species. The institute is also tasked to explore new fishing areas and study the prospects for their use. It also exercises control over the state of resources and works out regimes of their efficient use.

Medvedev is also planned to visit the Magadan commercial seaport, which is fit for use by big vessels and operates year-round. Its key foreign partners are ports in South Korea and the United States. The port is also home to the local small boat fleet, which is used to ship cargoes to settlements located along the Sea of Okhotsk coastline in the Magadan and Kamchatka regions, and in Khabarovsk Territory.

The port has nine wharfs, two of which - wharfs number 4 and 5 - will be the first to be overhauled under the port’s modernization project. After the modernization, the port’s cargo turnover will go up to three million tonnes.

The programme of Medvedev’s trip to the Far East includes visits to Khabarovsk and Birobidzhan. Delivering an annual report at the Russian State Duma lower parliament house on Tuesday, the prime minister said he planned to organize a meeting of the governmental commission in the Far East. He said that the development of the Far Eastern regions was one of the government’s priorities and promised lavish financing. “Now, we are forming a set of institutions that will be used to ensure development, including the so-called territories of accelerated development,” he said. “The legislative base is being formed, I hope for the support from lawmakers.