Sergey Aleksandrovich, what is at the heart of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk management?
Sergey Nadsadin: The unique geographical position of the Sakhalin region, the proximity to the largest countries of the Asia-Pacific region make it one of the most dynamic developing regions not only in the Far East, but, according to one series of indicators, throughout the country.
The same can be said of our city. By all-Russian standards, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a small city: the population is just over two hundred thousand people. At the same time, today, with the support of the regional governor Valery Limarenko, we are actively implementing the principles of sustainable development based on ESG in our work. Let me remind you: E stands for ecology and climate, S is a social standard, G is a system for managing a region and a city.
As for the first component, active gasification of the residential sector in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is taking place, the city’s boiler houses, as well as public and personal transport are being switched to environmentally friendly fuels, a digital standard has been created Street cleaning and the circulation of household waste has been digitized, which made it possible to clean up the city in just a couple of months of decades of unauthorized dumping.
The social standard as a set of convenient services and practices, including digital ones, guarantees a comfortable life for the people of South Sakhalin. Special attention is paid to families with children, retirees, the disabled and veterans. With the help of digital services (and we have “digitized” almost all areas), people can make an appointment with a doctor, undergo a comprehensive examination, receive a series of targeted social payments and much more.
If we talk about block G, then together with the government of the region we were among the first in Russia to introduce a project management system, mechanisms and principles of lean technologies. In 2022 we create exemplary municipal institutions and bodies that will be engines to increase efficiency in their areas of action.
Now a master plan for the urban district is being developed – a tool for planning the development of territories, which does not have legislatively approved requirements for composition and content and for layout boundaries. This makes it flexible and opens up ample opportunities to apply a wide variety of mechanisms to implement the master plan.
What are the municipal policy priorities pursued by the city administration?
Sergey Nadsadin: Maintaining positive trends in the development of the city is impossible without a high-quality economic foundation. Today we are working on the basis of systematic development and planning, therefore we intend to implement all social programs in full, we will build housing, social equipment, and continue landscaping. We are planning to implement our plans, including through investment projects and optimization of our own reserves. The digitization of the municipality’s activities is designed to help us with this. The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk administration was one of the first in Russia to begin preparations for digital transformation; Already in the basic stage, we managed to optimize the main work processes. This is especially important in the face of budget constraints, because the tasks are getting bigger and bigger.
Increasing investment attractiveness and creating a comfortable business climate remains a priority area of municipal policy for us. In recent years, many tools have emerged that help the municipality to attract investment, guaranteeing the security of capital investments.
The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk administration was one of the first in Russia to start a digital transformation and optimize the main work processes
We have formed an unprecedented set of mechanisms to support investment projects, which includes subsidies, tax and land lease benefits, and the provision of land for the implementation of investment projects without competitive procedures. Support for investment projects is carried out on the principle of “one-stop shop”.
The mechanism for attracting private investment in the development of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk through preferences for priority development areas has proven itself. 39 investors received ASEZ resident status of the urban district. The total volume of its investments is about 44 billion rubles, it is planned to create more than three thousand jobs.
In the rating of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of the level of development of public-private partnerships, we confidently rank second.
To what extent are citizens involved in the city management processes?
Sergei Nadsadin: My task as mayor is to ensure that Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk develops according to modern standards. And I carry it out in constant dialogue with the neighbors. Today an entrepreneurial community and a special project environment are being formed in the city to solve problems that concern everyone.
Thus, together with the Moscow General Plan Institute, we developed and approved last year the general plan of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk for the next 20 years. In this work, we focus on people’s opinions. We held meetings with the neighbors, we discussed, we debated and together we determined what our city would be like.
In parallel with the master plan, another important document was prepared – the city design code. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was one of the first in Russia to accept it. As a result, we receive a clear set of rules that define the standards for the improvement of both the built and emerging urban environment.
The development of modern urban space provides a comprehensive solution to transportation problems. To do this, we launched a public transport reform aimed at improving the quality of urban transport: we introduced exclusive lanes for buses, we built transport interchanges that integrate the railway into the public transport network. These projects were also discussed with the people. They accepted criticism, corrected our decisions and reached compromises.
Today, no project, be it repairing a courtyard or creating a new plaza, is complete without the participation of our citizens. And it is correct. We have a City Public Council, whose members actively participate in all discussions, make their proposals. Activists of territorial public self-government, representatives of public bodies are not indifferent to everything that happens in the city. Social design, when the people themselves offer certain options for the development of the territory, is our trend. In this way, by the way, we prepared a master plan for the development of the Mountain Air ski resort, we discussed the emergence of new parks and public spaces.
Sergey Aleksandrovich, why is such attention at the highest level paid to the construction of a university campus in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk?
Sergei Nadsadin: I cannot help noticing that Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a city of young people. And now, with the colossal support of Governor Valery Limarenko, who is personally supervising this project, we are starting to build a world-class SakhalinTech university campus. His project took second place in the competition, which was attended by universities from all over Russia, and received a federal grant.
The scientific and educational complex will include an educational building, a scientific and laboratory block with a technology park, a library, a hall for 700 seats, public and commercial spaces, and a greenhouse. The new campus will have 1,500 students and 250 teachers. This is a great step forward for the development of the city. It is extremely important that our young people receive a decent education on the island and settle in their hometown.
Infographic “RG” / Rafael Zaripov
Key directions of the development of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
The city is a benchmark in environmental standards (to achieve carbon neutrality, the construction of some 500 electric service stations, the conversion of 100,000 vehicles to gas and electricity, the gasification of 20,000 homes, the start-up of a small plant of LNG).
The city is the center of the oceanic economy (the Ecopolis project, the creation of the South Sakhalin agglomeration).
The city is a logistics hub (construction of an airport for five million passengers a year and a new runway).
