KRASNOYARSK, September 16. /TASS/. The gross metropolitan product of the Norilsk and Dudinka agglomeration in the Krasnoyarsk Region's north will increase by almost 1.5 times by 2035 to 1.5 trillion rubles ($17 billion), leader of the region's Agency for Development of Northern Territories and Support for Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples Anton Narchuganov said at the Siberian Perspective Sustainable Development Summit in Krasnoyarsk.

In compliance with President Vladimir Putin's order, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and the Arctic, together with regions, has been working to update the Arctic's backbone cities and settlements. In 2023, the country's government put together a list of 16 backbone settlements, where population is more than 1.5 million people. The Krasnoyarsk Region's settlements on the list are the Norilsk - Dudinka agglomeration, the town of Dixon and the city of Igarka.

"One of the key parameters is the gross metropolitan product's growth, that is, it is the added value that emerges inside the agglomeration," the agency's leader said. "The plan is that over the master plan's implementation by 2035, the growth will be almost 1.5 times, that is, almost 1.5 trillion rubles of added value, produced in the [Norilsk and Dudinka] agglomeration."

According to an optimistic scenario, the agglomeration's population will grow by 7% to about 209,000 people by 2035, he continued. Investment projects, implemented in the region's Arctic Zone, are of importance both for the region's economy and for the country. "The investment projects' products in the region's Arctic Zone, in the future will form half of the cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route. We are speaking about 100 million tons a year."

The 4th Siberian Perspective Sustainable Development Summit ran in Krasnoyarsk on September 13-14. Krasnoyarsk hosted the first event in 2021.