MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. The Port of Providence in the Chukotka Autonomous Region is planned to join this year the list of the country's Arctic backbone settlements, Anna Otke of the Federation Council's Committee on International Affairs said.

"We expect that in the near future, this year, we will be able to put the Providence seaport on the list of backbone settlements. The Chukotka Autonomous Region's government is facing this task," she said at the Far East and the Arctic: Sustainable Development Conference.

The district's participation in three preferential regimes in the Arctic Zone, the development of mineral deposits, and the implementation of a floating nuclear power plant project contribute to the GRP growth, she said. "The measures that have been actively applied in the Far East and the Arctic have helped us transform the economy. Over the past year alone, the Chukotka Autonomous region's GRP has grown by 6.8%," she added.

Providence Bay is a bay in the Bering Sea. The water's maximum depth is 150 meters.