MURMANSK, February 13. /TASS/. The Murmansk Agglomeration master plan under the program to develop the Arctic's backbone cities may contain a requirement to attract 30,000 new specialists by 2035. This request from big businesses working in the Arctic was voiced by Grigory Solomin, representing a company that is working on the master plan.

In 2023, the Russian government listed key cities in the Arctic: those are 16 agglomerations and settlements in the Karelia, Komi, Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk, Arkhangelsk, Nenets, Chukotka and Yamalo-Nenets Regions. The Murmansk Region has three main agglomerations: Monchegorsk, Kirovsk-Apatity, and Murmansk with the restricted-access areas of Severomorsk and the Kola District.

"We have analyzed requests from big businesses, and it would be necessary to attract 30,000 new jobs here [into the Murmansk Agglomeration] over the next 10 years," the specialist told reporters. "That is, in addition to what we have now, we would need additionally 30,000 highly qualified specialists. This is a big challenge, and at the same time it is an opportunity for the city."

The specialists would be invited not only to the industrial or manufacturing sectors. "In Murmansk, for example, have been growing creative industries, the film industry, and many others - they offer a good potential. We live in the time where cities compete with each other. The modern economy requires human resources, and thus the cities in Russia need to be rebuilt to meet expectations of the people who create this modern economy," he added.

The Murmansk Region's Deputy Governor Olga Vovk pointed to a big number of strategic and investment projects in the Murmansk Agglomeration, such as the Lavna port, Novatek's Large-Tonnage Offshore Structures Center, and many others, which require labor and technologies.

"Projects in the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone are booming, and master plans are to ensure this rapid growth, because our industrial component and investment portfolio are growing, but we do not manage to bring respective current infrastructures. As for the master plans for the three agglomerations in the Murmansk Region, we have contractors, and we continue working actively with the local residents, professional, industrial and business communities to outline master plans for specific territories," she told reporters.