MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The development of the Arctic may bring to Russia's economy added value of up to 100 trillion rubles ($1 trillion), Director of the Eastern Center for State Planning (Vostokgosplan) Mikhail Kuznetsov said.
"We will receive up to 100 trillion (rubles) in additional added value from the development of the Arctic in the coming years," he said on sidelines of a discussion club at the Project Office for Arctic Development.
In the presentation, he touched upon the topic of Arctic development, stressing "the development of such a big and promising region should be based on a system of backbone settlements."
In the work on master plans for the main cities, experts are paying special attention to several aspects, including the permafrost thawing, he continued. They have been putting together a unified database to monitor the permafrost zone so that scientists could have access to the process' analysis, he added.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin noted the thawing for Russia is more acute than for other countries. During the thawing, a significant amount of gases emits into the atmosphere thus damaging the environment. For Russia, "where there are quite big and medium-sized settlements beyond the Arctic Circle, the problems seem more acute," the president said.
First Deputy Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Gadzhimagomed Guseynov said the permafrost degradation in the Arctic could cause a damage of 5 trillion rubles ($54 billion) over coming decades.
About master plans to develop cities
Another task, Vostokgosplan's director has mentioned, is to improve the logistics, including to "get rid of the Northern Supplies (system) so that the residents could have a year-round access" to products and goods.
The Northern Sea Route will have a certain impact on development of every territory, he continued adding specialists also do not "forget about the urban space development."
In 2021, President Vladimir Putin supported the idea of a large-scale renovation of cities in the Far East. Those were plans to develop the Far East's administrative centers and other cities with the population of more than 50,000 thousand people. In July, he told the government to work with the regions to determine a list of backbone cities in the Arctic and to prepare master plans for their development until 2035. The president stressed the project's practical implementation should begin as early as in 2025.