| Gennady Fadeev promises reforms and money While the cabinet is preparing for hard work after the long holidays, the head of the Ministry of Railways, Gennady Fadeev, as befits a new recruit, is showing maximum activity. During his first ten days of work, he held a conference call, made an inspection trip to St. Petersburg and outlined his views on key industry issues. At the same time, Mr. Fadeev showed himself not only to be a knowledgeable specialist, which is not surprising, given his track record, but also a politically sophisticated official.
Friday's conference call began with "lining up" railway chiefs. Calling the priority the repayment of debts of the Ministry of Railways to budgets of all levels (which certainly pleased the government and governors), Mr. Fadeev said that “failure to fulfill obligations to pay taxes and fees will be considered as inadequacy of the position held.” The carrot was immediately followed by the stick: the minister advocated using the funds received by the railways from leasing “excess infrastructure facilities” and providing freight forwarding services for their own needs. Since almost 6 billion rubles are planned to be received from auxiliary activities in 2002, local railway bosses should be pleased. Mr. Fadeev pleased ordinary workers with his intention to raise wages in the industry to the level of other natural monopolies, increasing them by 15% already in February, and 1.5 times by the end of the year.
On the key issue - the reform of the Ministry of Railways - Mr. Fadeev showed himself to be its ardent supporter, declaring that by the end of this year the first stage will be completed, and in 2003 the second will begin. At the same time, he noted that this is “long and painstaking” work and “in no case should a situation be allowed in which, as a result of reforms, people could suffer or damage the interests of the state.” According to the new minister, three out of four bills related to the restructuring of the Ministry of Railways have been agreed upon with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the main opponent of Nikolai Aksenenko. Disagreements remain only on the issue of privatization of railways. A number of law enforcement agencies have comments on this project, and Mr. Fadeev assessed them as “reasonable.” The minister himself is in favor of preserving the railway tracks, upper structures and transportation management system in state ownership.
Since the privatization bill is the key one, Mr. Fadeev began his party quite subtly, declaring his readiness to cooperate both with the security forces close to the president and with the main ideologist of structural reforms, German Gref. The first object for inspection was equally successfully chosen - the Oktyabrskaya Railway. The results of the meeting, which the minister held in St. Petersburg on Saturday, pleased the two governors - the northern capital and the Leningrad region: Mr. Fadeev promised that there would be no reduction in “railway” investments in these two entities. Considering Vladimir Putin’s tender attitude towards his hometown, the promise of the new head of the Ministry of Railways to enrich the investment program with new objects should be pleasant for him too.
In the road investment plan approved a year and a half ago, the emphasis is placed primarily on the reconstruction of highways along which Russian raw materials and goods are exported. In particular, it is urgent to complete the electrification of sections of routes to Murmansk, Estonia, Latvia, and to the new ports of the Leningrad region. Previously, the ministry intended to send in 2002-2003. about 15 billion rubles (part of these funds were allocated last year) for such a reconstruction of the St. Petersburg railway junction, after which it will not need modernization for several decades.
Approximately half of this amount will be spent on the construction of new tracks to the St. Petersburg commercial port, and about a third will be spent on the construction of a new Ladozhsky station for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, which will become the fifth operating passenger terminal of the city. The road management believes that without it it is impossible to increase freight traffic. This is exactly what the Leningrad Region is seeking, lobbying for two related projects - the construction of new railway approaches to the port of Ust-Luga and the construction of a railway ferry from Ust-Luga to the port of Mukran (Germany) via Kaliningrad with a cargo turnover of 2.6 million tons per year.
The existing non-electrified road allows no more than 1.5 million tons of cargo to be transported from Ust-Luga. The general plan for the development of the port provides that in 2010 there will be a 10 million tons of cargo, and this is exactly the capacity the new tracks and Luzhskaya station should have. However, these objects, requiring $26 million, are not yet in the investment program of the Ministry of Railways. It also does not include the cost of a ferry, the launch of which at the first stage requires $62 million.
“We need powerful approaches to seaports,” agreed Mr. Fadeev. After a conversation with the minister, the head of the Leningrad region, Valery Serdyukov, said that the Ministry of Railways will include the approaches and the station in Ust-Luga in the program for 2003-2004. Gennady Fadeev also spoke extremely flatteringly about the ferry project, calling it “the most profitable for shippers.” However, he did not go further than praise. For the first time, enough advances have already been issued. Victor MATVEEV, St. Petersburg, Ivan GORDEEV |
|
