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Russian government to consider bill granting Vladivostok free port status

The project is seen as a tool to prompt logistics development and partner relations with Asia Pacific countries

VLADIVOSTOK, June 4. /TASS/. The Russian government plans to consider a bill on granting a free port status to Vladivostok, a port city in the Russian Far East, at its meeting on Thursday.

In case of approval, the bill will be submitted to the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, the ministry for the development of the Far East said.

Earlier, the bill on the establishment of the Vladivostok free port and relevant amendments to the Russian laws were approved by the Russian government’s commission on legislative activities.

A proposal to grant the status of a free port with simpler customer formalities to Vladivostok was made by President Vladimir Putin in the annual state-of-the-nation address to Russian parliament in December 2014.

The bill suggests that the zone of the free port will embrace thirteen municipalities. The status of residents there may be given to seaports, the airport and the companies working in travel and tourism.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev said earlier the bill lays the groundwork for upgrading the seaport operations and for making the Primorsky (Maritime) territory a locomotive of growth in the Far East.

Forecasts say that if the project is realized, the Gross Regional Product (GRP) of the Primorsky territory will reach 1.106 trillion roubles (20.3 billion U.S. dollars) by 2021; 1.402 trillion roubles (25.79 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025; and 2.157 trillion roubles (39.68 billion U.S. dollars) by 2034 (a 3.4-fold growth on 2015). The GRP growth of the Far Eastern federal district in this case is expected to reach 34% by 2025, to amount 1.97 trillion roubles (36.24 billion U.S. dollars). The project will help create 84,700 new jobs by 2021, and 468,500 - by 2034.

Apart from that, the project is seen as a tool to prompt logistics development and partner relations with Asia Pacific countries.

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