The Russian government plans to allocate up to 600 billion rubles ($23.6 billion) to fund development projects in Eastern Siberia and Far East by 2013, Kamil Iskhakov, presidential envoy in the Far East, told the Far Eastern International Economic Forum on September 18. Total investments in the region could reach 9 trillion rubles ($354 billion) by 2025, he told Forum participants.
However, the Forum's host, Khabarovsk regional governor Viktor Ishayev, sounded less optimistic. China, Japan, and South Korea still remain regional economic leaders, he noted, while Russia's Eastern Siberia and Far East, along with North Korea and Mongolia, are becoming increasingly marginalized.
Ishayev complained about low incomes in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, which are some 12% below Russia's average. He suggested that Moscow should allow Far Eastern regions to retain a larger share of corporate profit taxes and VAT. He also urged the government to prioritize exports of finished petrochemical products, not oil and gas, or the region risks becoming a raw-materials supplier to the region's more advanced economies (Interfax, RIA-Novosti, September 18-19).
In short, they're promising a lot more money even when they have not quite delivered on what they promised before.
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