Far East to receive funds from federal government

Some 1.75bn rubles ($55.3m) are to be allocated this year for financing theprogram on the social and economic development of the Far East andTransbaikalia throughout 2010, Ilya Klebanov, Minister of Industry, Scienceand Technology, declared at the second Baikal economic forum in Irkutsk.According to him, some 60 percent of this sum had been already transferredby September 1, 2002. On the whole, the program envisages more than 16.5bnrubles ($521.5m) throughout 2010.The Minister pointed out that the federal government allocated 2.1bn rubles($66.37m) for the Far East in 2002 to compensate high energy tariffs. Henoted that the average energy tariff was RUR0.598 per kilowatt/hour, whileDalenergo's (the Far Eastern branch of RAO UES) tariff was RUR0.987 perkilowatt/hour, Sakhalinenergo's tariff was RUR1.173 per kilowatt/hour andKamchatskenergo's RUR2.14. Moreover, this year the government willallocate 1.825bn rubles ($57.68m) for developing the fuel and energy sectorof the Far East, which is 60 percent of the total sum allocated for thefuel and energy sector in Russia. In 2003 this ratio will be the same,Klebanov stressed..