Russia: Economic Development of Far East Ahead of Other Regions

On the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum taking place in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, President Vladimir Putin convened a government meeting on infrastructure development in this strategic region of the country. According to Putin, the Far East “surpasses many other Russian regions in terms of economic development.” The positive dynamics of economic development in this region is confirmed, among other things, by the increase in the use of electricity in the area: “In the country as a whole, electricity consumption grew by 1.4% last year, while in the Far East the figure rose by 3.5 percent. This reflects the growth of economic and trade activity in the region,” Putin emphasized.

According to Kremlin forecasts, in the next 6 years, until 2030, “electricity consumption in the eastern part of Russia will grow on average by about 5% per year, and these rates will be twice as high as the Russian average.”

To meet the energy needs of both companies and residents of the Far East, Putin emphasized the need to build several new power plants by 2030, which should increase electricity generation by at least 2.6 gigawatts. Among the priority projects for the economic development of Russia’s Far East, Putin named the construction of the South Yakut CHP plant in northeastern Siberia, as well as the modernization of the Svobodnenskaya CHP plant built in 2017 in Priamurye, on the border with China. In addition, there is an urgent need to modernize more than 270 diesel CHP plants. In this regard, the government has been instructed to prepare and adopt a long-term program for the development of the electric power industry in the Far East by the end of 2024.

Another very important aspect of the economic and social development of Russia’s Far East is related, according to Putin, to the construction and technical modernization of strategic infrastructure. First of all, this concerns airports, given the distances separating Vladivostok from Moscow and other major population centers of the country. For example, the straight-line distance between Vladivostok and Moscow is 6409 kilometers. “It is also necessary to urgently increase the availability of airline tickets,” Putin said, drawing the government’s attention to the need to “develop the highway network in the region, build new bridges, particularly over the Lena River in the northern region of Yakutia, where Russia’s largest diamond deposits are located.” In conclusion, Putin emphasized that “a powerful competitive advantage of the Far East is its proximity to international logistics routes of the Pacific region and the inclusion of Russia’s eastern regions in the global system of commodity flows.”