TASS, October 27. /TASS/. The Capital of Arctic advance-development territory and the Russian Federation’s Arctic Zone over recent year attracted 250 companies with investment projects worth more than 420 billion rubles ($6 billion), the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic said in a report, published on its website.
"A year ago, on October 26, 2020, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed an order regarding the strategy for development of the Russian Federation’s Arctic zone," the report reads. "According to the Corporation for Development of the Far East and Arctic, the number of residents at the unique preferential areas - the Capital of Arctic and the Russian Federation’s Arctic Zone - has reached 250 companies."
"Under the projects, which will offer more than 15,000 jobs, the amount of investments has exceeded 420 billion rubles," the ministry said.
The investment projects are in logistics, extraction of mineral resources, tourism, fish processing, services and agriculture. According to Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexei Chekunov, the Russian Arctic is the world’s biggest economic zone of almost 5 million square kilometers.
"Our key task is to offer conditions for comfortable life and work in the Arctic," the press service quoted the minister as saying. "The strategic tasks to 2035 are: to have 200,000 new jobs, to increase the wages by 2.5 times, to increase life expectancy by ten years, and to replace the tendency of migration outflow with migration inflow."
Business residents of the Arctic zone are exempt from property and profit taxes, for ten years they make lower insurance payments, which are subsidized by the state. Additionally, the government compensates for bank loans’ interest rates. The companies face easier formalities in customs procedures and in obtaining land plots.