12 June 2004 09:48
Moscow agrees aid and development plan for Caucasus republic
Makhachkala, 11 June: Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref has identified the five outstanding
issues in Dagestan that the federal authorities should assist in tackling.
The republic's social and economic wellbeing depends largely on finding solutions to these issues, he told a
news conference at the Dagestan State Council after paying a working visit.
"These are, firstly, resettlement of the Laks people. We have reached agreement on how to proceed and on how to
plan a timeframe for future funding of housing construction near Makhachkala," Gref said. The second issue, he
said, is resettlement of victims of natural disasters. "This means people living in areas prone to landslides in
Buynaksk, and those who lost their homes in floods and natural disasters in past years."
The third issue is "flooding caused by construction of the Irganayskaya hydroelectric power station".
Agreement has been reached "on synchronizing work at the station's building site and the flood zone and
jointly with Unified Energy System calculating how much investment is needed and where to find it", he said.
"I think we will be able to take the appropriate decisions by autumn."
During talks with the head of the Dagestan State Council, Magomedali Magomedov, Gref also discussed "development
of the Makhachkala international seaport and we agreed on procedure and sourcing for future funding". Another topic
they discussed was a business programme to develop the republic. According to Gref, "we agreed that we'll send
experts here from Moscow, who will work alongside local experts on the best and most promising business projects that
can be implemented quickly and provide Dagestan with new sources of tax revenues and new jobs". He added that he
and Magomedov had talked about training Dagestani specialists at colleges in Moscow to further their careers in their
republic. "This is an important proposal for us," Magomedov commented. "And they'll study for free,
which is a great help for Dagestan."
German Gref's visit to the republic will result in changes to its socioeconomic development programme for 2004
to 2010, Magomedov added. The programme's goal is to boost the gross regional product by 2.6 to 2.8 times.
[RIA news agency] |
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