#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. At the forum Support Cities of Russia, which was held on August 16 in Minusinsk, the Norilsk master plan was presented. Since last year, the city has been included in the list of support points of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. For the Krasnoyarsk region, the northern capital is a pilot and flagship territory in terms of comprehensive development.
“In 2021, a comprehensive plan for the development of Norilsk was approved. It included the most important activities: construction of new housing, repair of utilities and engineering networks, construction of social facilities. Four parties took part: the Russian government, the regional government, the Norilsk administration and the Nornickel company. A strategy for the development of Norilsk until 2035 as a support city in the Arctic has also been developed. We approached this document very meticulously and literally all of Norilsk worked on it. The city administration, the deputy corps, development institutes, business, the scientific community and, most importantly, residents participated”, said Dmitry Karasev, the head of Norilsk.
The funding volume is 120 billion rubles, of which the largest part – 81.3 billion – is provided by Nornickel. Another 24 billion are federal budget funds and 14.8 billion are from the regional budget. In addition, the company allocates additional funding for such projects as the renovation of the Polar State University (PSU) building, the Ice Palace construction, the construction of a lyceum, a museum of modern art and a swimming pool.
“This is perhaps the most unique experience of interaction between a large industrial enterprise and government at all levels to implement a comprehensive plan. We understand that young Norilsk residents are our potential employees, so, for example, we are building an innovative lyceum. This is not a typical building – it will have a 25-meter pool, professional development zones for teachers and much more. We are also reconstructing the PSU and building a student complex, because we want to have spaces for young people, so that teachers can come to us”, said Nikolay Utkin, Nornickel’s senior vice president and the Norilsk Division head, at the forum’s plenary session.
The Nornickel representative added that the city’s development plans are closely linked to the company’s long-term development strategy, which implies production growth, the introduction of modern technologies and automation. All this will require even more qualified personnel in the future.
Speaking about the core cities’ future, the region head Mikhail Kotyukov noted that it is important to have partners in the form of businesses in each settlement that would be responsible for the economic component of development plans, similar to Nornickel.
“We have the excellent experience of Norilsk, where the renovation program was partly invented by Nornickel, since the company has plans for industrial investment development. At the same time, the company with a very good social package and wages has a huge number of vacancies that are not yet easy to fill. Therefore, one increase in wages does not solve all the issues. People vote not only for their salary, but also for a comfortable environment”, said the head of the region.
Kansk, Achinsk, Lesosibirsk and Minusinsk are among the supporting cities in Krasnoyarsk region, which presented their development programs until 2035 at the forum. According to the governor, the main challenge today is to raise the level of trust in these territories and increase their population to an average of one hundred thousand residents through the programs implementation.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Anzhelika Stepanova, Photo: Nornickel’s press service
