VALUNISTY YIELDS MORE GOLD

43 staff for OOO Chukotka arrived from the central part of Russia and CIS states by an air flight from Moscow to Pevek.

They are drivers, bulldozer operators, electricians, electrical fitters, riggers, diesel engine operators and workers of other professions necessary for the gold prospectors team. 15 men from this group were assigned to Valunisty mine for work in the quarry and gold extraction mill with a year-round production cycle.

Setup works began at Valunisty last autumn to improve the gold extraction process flow. The first batch of enriched concentrate was produced on 10 September and the first gold-silver bullion was produced in a few days. The mill reached its design capacity in a short time. Valunisty produced 596.89 kg of gold during 2003 and 130.136 kg in January 2004. - Yevgeny ITAROV.

MOSCOW DEVELOPERS WILL BUILD "VLADIVOSTOK-CITY"

Construction contractors believe that money shortage is the main reason why so little housing is built in Vladivostok. Moscow companies start making investments in housing development in Primorye capital.

Vladivostok mayor Yury Kopylov signed last week two contracts will well-known Moscow investment-construction companies who plan to start housing development in Vladivostok already in this season. They are "Pravovoi Centre Zhilya" Group and OAO "ST Group Region," the latter known as one of the main developers of the elite residential complex "Moskva City."

Pravovoi Centre Zhilya intends to start mass construction in 71st micro-district. It is expected that this development will include about 80,000 square meters of floor space in multi-story buildings of the prefabricated/skeleton type.

It will become clear how much housing can be built in this area upon updating the master plan for this micro-district developed by PrimorGrazhdanProyekt institute 15 years ago.

Part of apartments will be allocated by the city hall to socially needy population groups and the remainder will be sold on a commercial basis, including mortgage schemes. Moscow investors believe that it is possible to fit in the price corridor applicable to the existing housing in this part of Vladivostok. This may be possible is construction is of mass character and proceeds at a fast pace.

The agreement with ST Group Region, specialized in elite housing developments, calls for construction of an elite residential complex in the downtown expected to become one of Vladivostok's landmarks. Though there is still no design, investor is seriously keen for this project.

Moscow developers eye two more land plots in the downtown, where two "club type" elite buildings will possibly be erected, with large comfortable apartments, front gardens, swimming pools. Another location in Vladivostok is considered as a potential site for an elite residential "megapolis."

It is known that Moscow developers will actively involve local construction companies and use primarily local materials. - Viktor KUDINOV.

NO BANKRUPTCY FOR DEFENSE PLANTS

After legislators initiated a campaign against fraudulent bankruptcies of major companies in Primorsky Krai, media spread news that some military plants, in particular, located in "Bolshoi Kamen" area and Dunai, may go bankrupt as well.

"ZR" applied for comments to the territorial body of the Federal Financial Recovery Service whose function is to monitor the financial condition of enterprises and defend governmental interests in case of court-appointed management by uncovering fraudulent bankruptcies.

By words of its head Alexander Kanchin, some action was taken indeed to raise noise about allegedly imminent bankruptcy of Plant No. 30 (Dunai town) and Era (Bolshoi Kamen) belonging to the Defense Ministry.

"The problems faced by military plants are not problems of particular plants but rather the result of an overall crisis in the defense industry," Andrei Kanchin says. "That's why there should be no hurry with bankruptcy scenarios. We should help them keep afloat. At present, any of the military plants in Primorsky Krai may be announced bankrupt, because law says that bankruptcy procedures can be started when debt exceeds 100,000 rubles during g three straight months. However, this law must not be misused as the national economy is just at the beginning of recovery. An inter-agency commission closely watches the situation at defense plants. By the way, some of them have chances to be eligible for the programme "Russian Shipbuilding" in this and next year. Let me assure the management and staff of the above said plants that bankruptcy procedures will not be applied to them in 2004." - Nadezhda VORONTSOVA.

TIME FOR BUDGET CUTS

Primorsky Krai administration submitted a blueprint for 2004 budget revision to the legislative assembly, according to which the budget should be cut by 1.5 million rubles and expenditures by 2 billion rubles.

Lawmakers are to make up the region's largest budget deficit in recent years - almost 1.5 billion rubles (8% of expenditures). The reason for deficit is very simple. Two key revenue sources were considerably overestimated at the budget planning stage, namely, transfers from the federal coffers and charges for use of aquatic bioresources.

In both cases erroneous planning resulted from uncertainty in relationships between federal and regional authorities. When developing and adopting the budget statement in the first reading, Primorye administration did not know what effects would be from the new system of fish quota allocation and what the Finance Ministry's calculations for budget transfers to regions were. Eventually, regional budget planners had to assume previous year's parameters.

It became clear already at the second reading stage that the revenue part needs to be corrected. Due to federal policies of cutting governmental expenses and to calculation techniques, Primorsky Krai was allocated 490 million rubles less in transfers than had been assumed. Then, about 1 billion rubles had to be deducted from the budget plan after the government cancelled quota auctions and imposed fixed rates on aquatic bioresource use.

Another reason for budget cuts is the water problem. According to the regional administration's estimates, 500 million rubles of budget resources is needed to solve the water supply crisis in Vladivostok and Artem. With no financial reserves in Primorye for many consecutive years, the only way to earmark the required amount is cutting other budget item lines. - Andrei BLINOV.