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Legislators to discuss bill on preferences for investors in the Arctic

A system of preferences for new economic projects in the Arctic will attract to the region private investments and businesses, the deputy minister said

VLADIVOSTOK, September 6. /TASS/. A bill on new tax and administrative preferences for private investors in the Arctic may be on agenda of the Russian State Duma during the autumn session, Russia’s Deputy Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexander Krutikov told the Eastern Economic Forum.

"We expect a special meeting, which will outline a new model of preferences," he said. "We shall be able to present the bill to the legislators, so that the State Duma could discuss it during the autumn session."

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A system of preferences for new economic projects in the Arctic will attract to the region private investments and businesses, will favor organization of new jobs for the locals. The bill has passed federal authorities, with the exception for the Finance Ministry, he added.

"The only authority, with which we continue disputes, is the Finance Ministry; all the others have supported us," he continued. "We have not excluded from the support system the oil and gas sector, as it is the main direction and will remain as such for coming years; of course, we shall stimulate the processing businesses and others. This will require significant [time]."

"The system of preferences will support the projects, which do not exist as yet, <…> those are projects in gas chemistry, those are new LNG projects, new oil and gas projects in Eastern Arctic, which today do not exist even in forecasts of oil and gas production," the deputy minister said.

The fifth Eastern Economic Forum, organized by the Roscongress Foundation, is being held in Russia’s Vladivostok on September 4-6. TASS news agency is the event’s general information partner, the official photo hosting agency and moderator of the presentation zone focusing on the Russian Far East’s innovation opportunities.

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