TASS, November 23. Most applicants for an Arctic land plot, which will be allocated in 2021 under the Arctic Hectare Program, prefer locations next to cities and big villages or shores of navigable rivers. These areas are most accessible in the Arctic and may have necessary infrastructures most quickly, experts told TASS.
Earlier, Russia organized a program to lend a hectare in the Far East. A similar program in the Arctic will begin from June 1, 2021. All land plots will be terrestrial. Applicants may choose from locations in the Murmansk, Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets Regions, in certain districts in the Krasnoyarsk, Arkhangelsk, Komi and Karelia Regions.
"We can see the success of the Hectare Program in the Far East, and thus many people living in the North or who would want to come here will open their businesses in the Arctic. First of all, in tourism. We shall support such infrastructures, and having received an Arctic hectare, businesses will build hotels, tourism facilities, and besides, they will build own houses. This offer is attractive, since we offer the so-called "Arctic" incentives and unprecedented low taxes for small and medium businesses for the term of three years," the Murmansk Region’s Governor Andrei Chibis said.
A house by the river
Press service of the Agency for Human Resources Development in the Far East and Arctic (Agency) told TASS, in the Arctic, unlike in the Far East, land plots will be offered mostly next to big cities - Murmansk, Norilsk, Arkhangelsk, etc.
"We suppose, the demand will be higher for plots next to agglomerations with existing infrastructures, which will develop parallel to new businesses," the Krasnoyarsk Region’s Ministry for Economy and Regional Development told TASS.
Viktor Zubarev of the Business Russia NGO told TASS most Arctic territories lack good infrastructures: both roads and the Internet.
"Correct, within a few years, the Internet will be available even in small villages, where 100 people live. However, the most important factor is big transportation routes. For the Krasnoyarsk Arctic districts, for example, those are the Yenisei and other rivers. If the program succeeds, the North will see new active businesses and development of local river and air routes," he said.
The Yamalo-Nenets Region’s property authority told TASS new infrastructures would depend on the demand. "If local authorities have agreements on neighboring land plots with 20 or more people, <…> those authorities will support organization and construction of municipal, transport, and social infrastructures," the authority said.
Residents of the Arctic regions will be the first to apply for land plots. And six months later, applicants from the country’s other regions will be invited to follow suit. An applicant may receive for free a land plot of maximum one hectare for the term of five years, and after that time the land may become a property or may be rented for a long term. The hectare may be used for building a house or for businesses.
The demand for exotic North
The Agency has surveyed residents of the Russian Arctic zone outside the Far East. The results show that one in four respondents wants to apply for an Arctic hectare.
"We expect the program will be interesting for residents of the Krasnoyarsk Region’s Arctic districts - representatives of the low-numbered indigenous peoples - in case they cosider own non-nomadic project," the Krasnoyarsk Region’s Ministry for Economy and Regional Development said.
A farmer, who has started Russia’s first muskox farm in the central Taimyr, Denis Terebikhin, told TASS he would want to apply for a land plot near the Volochanka village, where he lives and where the farm is located.
Karelia has prepared land plots in its six Arctic districts. "We are aware of the demand from the local residents, who will move to the northern districts under the Arctic Hectare Program," the region’s Minister of Property and Land Yanina Svidskaya told TASS. "We also know people from other regions, who want to come to Karelia to develop, for example, agriculture here."
The Arkhangelsk Region’s Ministry of Agriculture and Trade sees the program will favor development of agriculture tourism, fishing, growing potato, growing vegetables in greenhouses, and development of small farms.
"The Arctic Hectare is a very good solution, which will attract people to the North, will stop the population outflow," the Murmansk Region’s legislator Boris Pishchulin said. "This is the opinion of an official. As an Arctic resident, I may say - for me, it may be too late to develop new lands, but I could recommend it to my children. We can see the tendency, when people from big cities tend to move closer to the nature, which is probably right, and under this program people will be able to own this land plot."
"Here, in the Murmansk Region, many villages have infrastructures and big lands, and laying new electricity lines or roads to the new plots would not be necessary," he said in conclusion.