Representatives of the Kaliningrad region addressed the State Duma with a package of initiatives

Today, on May 17 parliamentary hearings focusing on the performance and prospects for further development of the Special Economic Zone in the Kaliningrad region were held at the State Duma of Russia in Moscow. The regional delegation was headed by the Governor, Georgy Boos, and included the Minister of Economy of the Kaliningrad region, Alexandra Smirnova, Head of Kaliningrad SEZ administration, Vladimir Ashihin, Vice-President of the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dmitry Chemakin, as well as representatives of regional professional associations - Mikhail Meister, Stefano Vlahovic, Lyudmila Toropova, Alexey Egorov. Members of Kaliningrad delegation voiced a number of proposals aimed at the improvement of socio-economic situation in the Kaliningrad region and ensuring the sustainability of its development.

One of the major initiatives was a proposal to extend the transition period for businesses operating on the basis of the old edition of the Federal Law "On the Special Economic Zone in the Kaliningrad region" (Federal Law No. 13).

According to representatives of the Kaliningrad region the restoration of pre-crisis levels of economic potential and investment capacity of certain enterprises will take a minimum of 3-4 years, which would require a comparable prolongation of the transition period aimed at restructuring of the regional economy stalled during the crisis period.
Representatives of the Kaliningrad region particularly emphasised the need to introduce mandatory coordination with the Government of the Kaliningrad region on the changes to the list of goods prohibited to be placed under the customs regime of the free customs zone. The reason for this proposal was the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia without any prior discussion with the Government of the Kaliningrad region to make a proposal on the unification of import regime of vegetable oils on the territory of the Russian Federation. It does not take into account that such actions will lead to a loss of investor confidence and negatively affect operation of more than 20 industrial enterprises in the region.

Other proposal concerned: the extension of preferential export of rape grown in the Kaliningrad region; the extension of provisions of the Law on SEZ in the Kaliningrad region so that the transition period could be used by businesses regardless of whether they were involved in foreign trade before April 1, 2006; amendments required to be made in the Customs code after the introduction of the Customs Union of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation; amendments in the Federal Law on Registration of Migration abolishing the requirement to register foreigners staying at hotels; adjustment of tariffs for natural gas for the Kaliningrad region; discounts for railway tariffs on the territory of the Russian Federation for goods transported from and to the Kaliningrad region by 20-30%; river border-crossing points "Rybachy" and "Sovetsk" on the Russian-Lithuanian border; etc.

In addition to that, Kaliningrad representatives made a requet to speed up the approval of the "Amber Coast" investment project in Pionersk by federal authorities.

Prepared by: Kaliningrad Regional Economic Development Agency based on materials of The Ministry of Economy of the Kaliningrad region