A number of fundamental documents have been adopted at the state level, which form the institutional conditions for business growth here. The Arctic Zone Development Strategy of the Russian Federation (AZRF) until 2035 has been approved. A law on entrepreneurial activity in the Arctic has been signed, aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses. Priority areas of development have been created. There is a second preferential treatment: residents of the Russian Arctic. It is enough to mention the programs “Arctic Hectare”, “Arctic Mortgage”, “Your Own Home in the Arctic”, etc.
That is why today there is a whole range of tools that enable companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, to develop in Arctic conditions.
Russia has shown that it is possible to work in the Arctic on an industrial scale, efficiently and safely.
If we look at the experience of other countries, we will see that the approaches they demonstrate are largely associated with the direct involvement of the state in the economy of the northern regions. And in this regard, priority is given to the socio-economic development of the territory first of all, and only then to the extraction of mineral resources.
You can politicize Russian projects in the Arctic as much as you like, but it is impossible to force international companies to do what they do not want and reject what they want. For example, Chinese container ships willingly use the Northern Sea Route to deliver cargo.
But it is obvious that in order for the Northern Sea Route to operate at the pace and volume that Russia needs, certain work needs to be done related to the modernization of the NSR ports, the laying of fiber optic communication lines, and the creation of the necessary number of emergency response and rescue centers. And this work is already underway.
The Arctic is a unique and protected environment. And it is important to maintain a balance of interests in the Russian Arctic. There are many business entities here, each of which has its own commercial and industrial interests. For a long time we lived in the paradigm of industrial management, when decisions were made by the heads of some industries without taking into account the activities of others.
Now we need to move on to the so-called intersectoral management. This is an attempt to ensure balanced development of all areas of industry that are present in the Arctic today: transport, mineral resources, oil and gas, fisheries and military-industrial complexes. And this important role of a balancer, in my opinion, should be assigned to the state. A unified system of registration of all activities taking place in the Arctic zone is needed, as well as the unification of equipment entering the fleet, which requires a single logistics operator.
Another aspect is sustainable development. Industrial corporations operating in the Arctic zone demonstrate an exceptionally prudent and responsible approach to environmental management. For example, the technologies used in the oil and gas complex, which potentially pollutes the environment, have actually been developed down to the smallest detail. And these are some of the cleanest technologies, given their level of automation and digitalization. Wells on the Arctic shelf are built kilometers deep, and even with horizontal waste underground also kilometers deep. The technologies are comparable in complexity to space technologies and at the same time do not allow a single drop of oil or process fluids to enter the environment.
In the Russian Arctic, it is necessary to move towards intersectoral management to ensure balanced development of the transport, mineral and raw materials, oil and gas, fisheries and military-industrial complexes.
It is worth mentioning that the Russian Federation is the only country that produces industrial oil from platforms located at high latitudes. The only country that transports liquefied natural gas and oil in ice. We have proven that it is possible to work in the Arctic on an industrial scale efficiently and safely. Today we are constantly presenting more and more new projects.
So, sustainable development is what we have in practice today. Moreover, the subjects are actively involved in the work: regional companies and people living in the Arctic zones are involved in the processes of development of the field and the implementation of Arctic projects; additional jobs are created, multiplier effects are formed, as they say, which attract new personnel, increase the tax base, create internal demand, purchasing power, etc., etc. And the regions are beginning to develop. Therefore, I believe that today Russia can become a benchmark, an example that it is possible to work in the Arctic not only efficiently, but also safely from an industrial and environmental point of view.
