Activists accuse officials of negligent attitude towards the development of the SEZ

Activists of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) conducted a control visit to the special economic zone “Gates of Baikal” in the Irkutsk region and came to the conclusion that over the eight years of the project’s existence, it has not budged. The ONF plans to ask the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation to pay attention to the work of Special Economic Zones JSC (SEZ JSC). Residents note that now, after recent personnel changes in the Irkutsk branch of the SEZ JSC, the Gates of Baikal have received an impetus for development. Market experts believe that the ONF has not understood the issue, but admit that there are serious strategic problems in the development of the tourist zone.

Activists of the All-Russian Popular Front conducted a control visit to the special economic zone “Gates of Baikal” in the Irkutsk region. Documents on the founding of the tourist zone were signed in 2007, but over the eight years of the project’s existence, its development has not begun. It was planned to invest 11.8 billion rubles in the project, in particular, the money was to be spent on the construction of engineering infrastructure. 108 million rubles were disbursed, but the construction of utility networks never began.

The head of the ONF project “For Fair Procurement,” Anton Guetta, considers the situation around the “Baikal Gate” to be outrageous. “This is the result of negligence and inaction of officials. We will definitely ask the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation to pay attention to the “effective” work of JSC “Special Economic Zones”, after which, I am sure, appropriate personnel changes must necessarily occur,” the ONF press release states, citing Anton Gett. The ONF representative also noted that the presence of only five residents in the tourist zone indicates that business has no access to participate in the project, which, according to Mr. Guetta, is often the main sign of a serious corruption component. Currently, residents of the project in the Slyudyansky district, near the city of Baikalsk (site area - 767 hectares), are Baikal Ski Resort "Mount Sobolinaya" LLC, Baikal-Aqua LLC, Ilim Baikal LLC, Greenvald-Baikal LLC " and LLC "Uyut+". At the same time, the only current resident who operates in the territory of the SEZ is Sobolinaya Mountain: at the moment, the company has invested about 150 million rubles in development, in particular, it has built a three-star hotel with 64 rooms at the foot of the ski resort, as well as panoramic cafe "Height 900". This summer the company invested about 3 million rubles. in the construction of a rope park.

Alexey Almukhamedov, general director of the Sobolinaya Mountain ski resort, told Kommersant that “now the SEZ is working the way a government structure interested in investors should work.” This is due to a change in the management of the Irkutsk branch of SEZ JSC: since 2009, the company was headed by Valery Drachev, but from August 3, 2015, the branch was headed by Sergey Ivanov. “Now we are limited by infrastructure things, there is not enough capacity. But a project for the construction of engineering infrastructure has already been developed and is undergoing environmental assessment. We expect that the approval of documents will be completed in February, and the construction of networks will begin in May,” added Mr. Almukhamedov, explaining that we are talking about electricity and heat supply and water disposal. According to the expert, the current limiting factor for residents is the lack of not only engineering infrastructure, but also a mechanism for allocating forests. “The territory is leased from us. If the lands belonged to the forest fund, then we would make a forest development plan, coordinate it and then cut down and build. But the lands have been transferred to the management of the SEZ, and there is no coordination mechanism. We wanted to make a freeride track, and this would greatly relieve the existing slopes, but we couldn’t, since there is no necessary mechanism at the federal level,” explained the general director of the ski resort.

Oleg Danilin, director of the Siberian Institute of Tourism Planning and Development, believes that the ONF has not understood the issue of constructing a tourist zone, citing figures and facts that have been known for many years, but admits that there are serious strategic problems in the development of the project. “No business idea. All tourist zones in Russia were drawn with one pencil, without the specifics of the regions,” he expressed his position in a conversation with Kommersant. As for the development of the project with the arrival of a new manager, Mr. Danilin believes that there will be no fundamental changes: “I have been hearing about the timing of infrastructure development in Baikalsk since 2012. Now, probably, the task will be completed, and about 1.5 billion will be spent on it. But there are no connection points for objects. Where to put the infrastructure - in an open field?

The Irkutsk branch of the SEZ refused to comment on the situation. The SEZ JSC was unable to promptly respond to Kommersant’s request.

Ekaterina Golovina

ONF stopped by the “Gateway of Baikal”