ST. PETERSBURG, December 15. /TASS/. The development of professional and human potential in the Arctic depends on comfortable living conditions, better medical and educational services and digital equality, said experts, participating in the Arctic: Present and Future international forum.
The plenary session's moderator, Andrey Sokolov, Deputy Director General of TASS, said: "I do not think anybody will argue the Arctic with its huge natural reserves can develop without humans, and people there must feel comfortable as much as it is possible, in a balance between the people and the nature, so that the damage from the economic development is minimal. In order to attract new human resources to the Arctic, people must feel how important this territory is."
Russia's Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunov said the Arctic's demand in specialists to 2035 would be more than 180,000. "In that demand, 60% are our traditionally strong sectors: energy, oil and gas, and mining. The second position - 22% - is the processing industry, and the third position is the transport and logistics sector," he said. "The Arctic, like the Far East, continues to attract young specialists. Despite the well-known complicated demographic tendencies in young specialists, we can see the highest interest among the group of people aged 22-24 years."
The Russian Navy's Commander Nikolay Yevmenov focused on the military serving in the far-away Arctic regions. "We have been reviving the garrisons, we are back in the Arctic forever," the admiral said. "The names like Kigilyakh, Chokurdakh, Talnamyr are not strange names to us, those are our garrisons, where the Russian military serve, and they must serve well to protect our northern borders, they must serve comfortably, so that their service conditions are not different from those in Central Russia."
The State Duma's Deputy Speaker Irina Yarovaya stressed the new and future laws related to the Russian Arctic zone and the Far East will be aimed at wider "social guarantees and opportunities, at health preservation and human development, at education." Among other important directions she highlighted new regulations for emergency assistance to far-away Arctic territories.
Chukotka's experience
Chukotka's First Deputy Governor Ilya Davidenko told the forum participants about how the region had been working on digital services for the residents. "In mid-December, the region's center - Anadyr and two nearby settlements will be connected to a fiber-optic communication system, and thus Chukotka's 40% of population will become digitally equal to people living in other regions," he said.
High incomes are not a priority for those who could agree to work in the Arctic regions, he continued. "When we met undergraduates, the income was not the first issue, strange as it may seem. The main questions were about comfortable conditions, so that people coming to the far-away regions like Chukotka, Yakutia or Magadan, were sure they will have the opportunities similar to those in St. Petersburg," he said.
About forum
The 12th international forum Arctic: Present and Future took place in St. Petersburg on December 8 and 9. In 2022, Russia marks the 90th anniversary of the Northern Sea Route, the 85th anniversary of the world's first drifting scientific station, North Pole-1, and the 15th anniversary of the high-latitude Arctic deep-water expedition (2007). Special activities on the forum's agenda were devoted to these events. The forum's organizer was the Association of Polar Explorers, supported by the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, the Foreign Ministry and other authorities. Nornickel was the event's general partner. TASS was the general information partner.