Governor of the Sakhalin region Valery Limarenko
Photo: Andrei Minaev
Crystal clear air, ski resorts, endless beaches, crabs and other seafood that are not the most common in central Russia… Sakhalin is today the same terra incognita (“unknown land”) that attracts tourists from all over Russia. What awaits you in the Kuril Islands? At the Eastern Economic Forum, Olesya Nosova, editor-in-chief and general director of the Komsomolskaya Pravda media group, spoke with the governor of the Sakhalin region, Valery Limarenko.
THE SMELL OF THE SEA BREEZE IMMEDIATELY FROM THE PLANE
– Valery Igorevich, I would like to give you the magazine “Far Eastern Breakthrough”. This is our business publication, which Komsomolskaya Pravda publishes specifically for the Eastern Economic Forum. I hope the magazine is useful to you.
– Why is it written “Crab Fever”? – the governor read the headline on the cover with interest. – We achieved all this without fever. Solid, calm. Maybe fever means eating more?
– For that also. Let’s talk about tourism.
– And we have all good news about tourism, with great pleasure.
– It seems to me that everyone in Moscow dreams of visiting Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands. What is happening there now?
– We invite you, taking advantage of this opportunity. Because Sakhalin is the best place in the world. It used to be believed that the best place in the world is the Alps, where it is not hot and there is fresh, clean air. The same thing is happening now in Sakhalin. We work a lot in the field of ecology. He made the air five times cleaner in terms of dust. We have such cleaning technology that anyone who comes says: this is the cleanest place in the world. You will come, you will see and you will be the first to say these words to me, after “hello”.
We are converting all boiler rooms to gas and are working a lot with Gazprom. Our deepest bow to Gazprom – these are our super partners helping the development of the region. Our air is cleaner in terms of CO2 (carbon dioxide – “KP”). When you arrive, you get off the plane: the smell of the sea breeze. When you go up to the mountains, you feel the transparent and clean air. And from the mountains you can see the illuminated city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk below. This is a new print I just brought back.
In the center of our city there is a ski resort, the most modern. The length of the roads is 35 kilometers.
– They say you have the best mountain air in our country!..
– Thanks for saying that. Of course, tourism is developing at a very rapid pace: a 30% annual increase in tourists. In the next three years we will double the number of hotel rooms. Furthermore, they are built to a high standard to satisfy the most demanding travellers. We are developing the direction of balneology. In March of next year, a medical center will be built, where it is planned to carry out high-tech diagnostics and operations, as well as a chain of hotels with a spa. Services that are traditionally available in sanatoriums, including mud and water. We will even have pump rooms, like in the Caucasus, where people can drink water, which will be called “Sakhalin-17”. In the style of “Essentuki-17”.
The governor of the Sakhalin region, Valery Limarenko, gave an interview to the editor-in-chief and general director of the Komsomolskaya Pravda media group, Olesya Nosova.
Photo: Andrei Minaev
10 THOUSAND JOBS AVAILABLE
– Does this mean that your personnel problem is solved on its own? Do people come to you?
– It doesn’t solve itself. There is an investment boom, money is invested in various businesses and jobs appear. Today, 10 thousand vacant positions are not filled. In reality we do not have unemployment: 0.4%. These are those people who do not need to work, or those who are currently changing jobs. That’s why we look for people. We have a special recruitment agency that attracts people to Sakhalin. This is fundamentally important to us.
– For people to travel, they need accommodation.
– We are building so much that Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has become the third city in Russia in terms of the number of completed housing units per inhabitant. In general, half a million square meters of housing are being built in the region, which is more than one square meter per person per year. And in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk it is about one and a half meters. At the same time, a dozen microdistricts are being built. Land is allocated for 10 million square meters of housing. The master plan has been drawn up for the entire territory of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. We are very good in this sense. The main Russian companies are present as builders: PIK, Samolet and our local companies. Works are also being carried out in the industrial sector. Now large industrial companies are powerful construction companies.
– What specialists are needed in Sakhalin?
– Software engineers, welders, electricians… The most common professions, on the one hand, and on the other, must be highly qualified specialists. These people work in companies that are present in the global market. We have a hydrocarbon group: production and processing of oil, gas and coal. Fishing industry. Our fleet is the most modern and largest in the Pacific Ocean. The most modern and large-scale processing. Factories are being built; the last one started working last year. In the next two or three years, processing will double. There is a construction boom for recycling. The task is to process it even more deeply than before. Not only fillet or minced surimi, but we are also thinking about producing collagen, processing mariculture (a direction of aquaculture that breeds or cultivates marine aquatic organisms: algae, mollusks, crustaceans, fish and echinoderms – “KP”). Mariculture is much more expensive than fish. For example, a scallop. And collagen costs an order of magnitude more than mariculture. This is deep processing, added value…
– Fish fat?..
– We already produce fish oil.
– Highly concentrated fish oil is scarce in our country. This is what I’m telling you.
– Thank you, I will tell our fishing industry.
“WE ARE ABSOLUTELY AVAILABLE”
– What about transportation accessibility?
– Complete order.
– There has been some change?
– The changes are very simple. The main airline of the Far East is Aurora, based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The president decided to have “fixed” fares (tickets are sold at a fixed price that does not change during the year – “KP”). You can fly from Moscow for 13 thousand rubles. Three planes fly from Moscow to Sakhalin a day. If necessary, four or five. As many as are necessary, as many will arrive. From Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk you can fly to almost all regions of the Far East. In fact, we fly wherever we consider necessary: a plane flies to Iturup twice a day and often to Kunashir as well. The number of quality airports is increasing. We have already completed the design at Shikotan and the construction of the Paramushir airfield is nearing completion. We are absolutely accessible. In addition, we have a modern railway and small aviation is developing – these are fundamental solutions to the transport problem.
Of course, we need to work on the roads. Roads have not been built in Sakhalin for a long time; two-thirds of roads do not have a hard surface. This will take a couple of decades and about a trillion rubles. But today we have chosen the dominant ones. We are building a highway on the west coast, this is of fundamental importance to us, people live there and complain about the quality of the roads. We are also building a highway around Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to eliminate freight transportation from the city; Next year we will begin the first phase.
– What about your international cooperation?
– Complete order. Almost everything we produce (99%) is exported. Even someone who cooks borscht in a cauldron in some field also works for export. Because all this is export income. We not only filled the budget of Sakhalin, but to a greater extent we filled the budget of the Russian Federation. We are also glad that Sakhalin is an important region for Russia.
And by the way, we love Komsomolskaya Pravda! In Sakhalin there is a branch of Komsomolskaya Pravda. I know the guys who work there well, we invite them to different projects. Very creative team. Let’s cooperate.
