Give a port. Russian seaports await the redistribution of property. Two new laws that fell into the State Duma are able to rewrite the rules of the game in this industry. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov hopes that now the port "will have a single owner who will control all the activities." Companies that have passed the state faces contribute promise all the benefits of civilization in the form of tax preferences and customs benefits.
- Russia is non -rtic -
Russian sea ports have been waiting for the appearance of industry legislation for seven years. The fact is that they do not have the competitive advantages that are provided by foreign port business. For example, the port fees that the state takes in the St. Petersburg port exceed the collections of the Baltic ports of neighboring states. And the constantly growing railway tariffs for the delivery of goods to Russian ports and attempts to increase rental payments for infrastructure, as the general director of OJSC Sea Port St. Petersburg Sergey Chelyadin, forced many cargoers to reorient their flows to Tallinn, Riga, Klaipeda.
The second, and very important, the difference between our port business and the Western is that Western ports have long been working in conditions of free economic zones. It is not surprising that their port farms are more attractive to investors, including Russian ones.
It is these problems that should solve two bills at once: on the creation of special economic zones of the port type and on sea ports (see certificate), which may be accepted right in front of the parliamentary elections.
The residents of the special economic zones of the port type (poet) are provided with significant customs and tax preferences that free the goods that have entered the port zone from excise taxes and duties and provide a refund of value added tax when crossing the port of the Port SEZ. According to deputies, laws should restore order in business and "increase the competitiveness of Russian ports." This is ideally.
However, what will actually happen after the laws earn, a mystery to all market players.
Investments in exchange - on state control -
According to the chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism of the State Duma, Yevgeny Fedorov, "the draft law on port OEZ will allow the ports to give proper status, making them really the gates of Russia into the world."
But not everything is so unambiguous. It is unlikely that all transit carriers will immediately refuse already developed ties with neighboring countries and change their routes in favor of our ports, not so attractive yet.
According to the analyst of the “Brockie's house, Valery Pivnya, one of the key difficulties in creating special economic zones of the port type is that ready-made ports with the already established system of interaction and subordination of organizations involved in the business processes, options for making profits, bonds with the regional business are used:“ In fact, so that the port zone is allocated to the project that is suitable for the project suitable for a suitable for the project suitable for a suitable for a suit Creating an SEZ, it is necessary to restore its economic independence. As a result, the process can turn into a banal redistribution of property, and it is not very clear how it will happen in practice as part of the implementation of this law. ”
The state is now one of the largest investors in the national economy - it can actively connect to the infusion of funds into the modernization of ports. However, he considers the beer, the state prefers investments to carry out, having received maximum control over a potential investment object. From this point of view, the situation resembles what is happening with air and shipbuilding: first control, then investment.
And it is difficult to judge how the new initiatives are perceived by the interested parties - persons and companies whose business can be damaged from the introduction of a new type of SEZ. The crime with which the reform is designed to fight is based on the corruption of officials of various levels. But will new laws help in this or, as usual, one group of officials will replace the other?
In favor of the version of the redistribution, the law also provides for the introduction of restrictions for future investors. Applicants will have to guarantee investments in the port infrastructure of sea zones: during the construction of a new port - at least 100 million euros, during the reconstruction and development of existing infrastructure - at least 3 million euros. The presence of a bar according to the volume of investments will lead to the fact that only large and medium -sized companies will be allowed to participate in the port OES, and small ones will be overboard, said RYE, Man & Gor Security Oleg Sudakov.
We will not talk about the goal, - Holy goal -
The second law “On Sea Ports” has been preparing in the government for seven years. The authors of the bill submitted to the State Duma propose to legislatively distinguish between the authority between the authorities, to eliminate duplicate functions, to distinguish between the property complex and organizations engaged in services in ports. The bill affects issues related to investing in the port infrastructure, with property relations, land, and the provision of services in ports.
According to the analyst of the IR Renaissance Capital, Eduard Faritov, the document is not tied to the general concept of development of the entire infrastructure system. “In particular, in the section“ Fundamentals of State Regulation of Activities in the Sea Port ”there is no indication of the role of ports in the Unified State Transport Policy, the role in integrating the country into the world economic system and the mission of ports in increasing the country's export potential,” says Pharitov. That is, there is no goal -setting in it.
In particular, now only 5% of oil exports are transported by the fleet of Russian companies (including “convenient” flags), and what do we see in the future?
For example, at present, only 15% of oil imported by the sea is transported by Chinese tanker companies, and in the future the Chinese government aims to bring 50% of imported oil by its own fleet. This is a goal.
As they hear about foreigners, - go to the drift -
The Law “On Sea Ports” introduces a direct restriction on land ownership on the territory of ports by foreign persons: according to Article 26 of this bill, land plots may be in state, municipal property, as well as the property of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities, with the exception of foreign citizens and foreign legal entities. Article 27 extends the same restrictions on the possession of port infrastructure objects.
Paritov sees in this restriction “The signal of the unwillingness of the presence of foreign investors in infrastructure projects, which contradicts the real steps of the government (a public invitation of investors from the United Arab Emirates and Singapore to participate in the creation of port zones)”. Thus, according to the analyst, we lose the opportunity to use the international experience of companies operating in this sector.
There is another point of view. Oleg Sudakov does not agree that these restrictions are so fundamental. Key industries should remain in state management - this is a generally accepted world practice, he believes. “In my opinion, it is necessary to prohibit private ownership of land on the territory of ports for foreign citizens and stateless persons, given their strategic significance,” said Boris Gryzlov, the leader of United Russia, in February.
Sudakov clarifies that the government calls for large foreign companies to cooperate in the field of asset management, and not the creation of infrastructure. In Western countries, as a rule, land in the territories of free zones also remain in state property. Long -term concessions (for 20-50 years) are concluded with foreign investors to transfer the right to use and dispose of these resources (without land ownership). So under the new Russian laws: foreigners cannot get the ownership of the land in the port zone, but there is no question of banning a long -term lease.
But since the restrictions on the participation of foreign persons in the possession of the lands of the port infrastructure is easy to circumvent, according to Edward Faritov, the only effect of the proposed restrictions is the signal about the unwillingness of external participation, which can scare away potential investors from abroad.
- corruption capacity -
The Association of Sea Trade Ports indicates that at least one patient remains: the lack of a regulatory framework for renting federal state property in seaports. For this reason, for example, a year ago the largest Russian enterprise-a large port of St. Petersburg could cease its work. Stevoric companies 1 almost lost their berths. The prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg through the Arbitration Court insisted on terminating the rental contracts between the owner of the unreasonable state property (Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosmorport") and the largest private Stevoric companies, as well as the application of the consequences of the nullity of transactions.
Formally, the prosecutor’s claims came down to the fact that the terms of the lease agreements of berths approved by the Ministry of Transport and Rosmorrechflot were not agreed with the Federal Property Management Agency. If the court of claims satisfied the prosecutor’s claims, Stevoric companies had to return the rented berths to Rosmorport, which would stop the work of the entire transport hub of St. Petersburg. The procedure for leasing state property, not prescribed by law, leads to the fact that any new agreement signed by Rosmorport may be disputed.
In the current bills, the regulations for concluding contracts for state property have not been prescribed. Which, of course, opens up great prospects for both the imagination of officials and for corruption.
** Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Sergey Aristov: “Today there are 78 ports. Last year, 421 million tons of cargo were transported, this is more than ever transported in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, more than 82% is external export, and only 4% is transit and 7% - import. ”
The law on special economic zones of the port type introduces new conditions for investing in port OEZs - free circulation of goods and services within the port zone, as well as tax and customs preferences for its residents.
The Law on Sea Ports of the Russian Federation regulates the norms related to investing in the port infrastructure, property relations, land, etc.
On March 29, the head of the Mayor German Gref announced negotiations on participation in the projects of port special economic zones conducting with foreign companies. There are only two main applicants for the project: Singapore PSA International and the company from the United Arab Emirates, whose name Gref did not clarify. Experts are confident that the state -owned company Dubai Ports World (DP World).
Port-type SEZ is planned to be created in the Far East, North-West, North and South of Russia. They can earn by 2011. “If the State Duma accepts the law, by the end of the year it will be possible to hold a competition for the selection of zones, since 2008 - to begin the development of the infrastructure to create these zones,” said the head of the Mayor German Gref. The Minister of Transport Igor Levitin considers it possible to create three port zones-in Nakhodka, Novorossiysk and Ust-Luga.
In most countries, OEZs of various types are created precisely with the aim of attracting foreign participation. The benefits are most often preferred to create at the level of tax and customs regulation. As for the land fund, the general principles of existing legislation are used here. In Korea, for example, acting on the territory of the so -called industrial complex, the company (including foreign) has the right to redeem the land at a price below the market. However, in the same Korea, the OEZ system is quite confusing and in most of them benefits are primarily tax bastards. ** ________________________
1 exercise control over the loading and unloading of ships.
How the American port of Savannah turned into a business leader
Two and a half centuries, the American port of Savannah existed only thanks to the export of cotton and silk. By the end of the eighties, the port could be called abandoned. But in just a few years, the empty berths and dilapidated savannah warehouses were reanimated. Asian imports, growing enormous pace, helped to save the American port. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were beyond the power to cope with the unexpectedly high stream of goods. In 1994, Savannah processed 550 thousand Teu (Twentyfoot Equivalent Unit-a unit of measurement equal to a volume occupied by a standard 20-foot container), and after ten years almost 2 million. Savannah is part of the ten main container ports of North America.
