Auf Baikal wird eine neue besondere Wirtschaftszone der Erholung und des Tourismus entstehen

Moscow and St Petersburg are the most visited Russian cities by foreign tourists. The government took a decision to support the attraction of these cities that are principal for the Russian excursion tourism, for example installation of the visa free conditions for the ferry passengers, global project of the construction of new hotels in Moscow.

Today the government takes the development of the ecological and adventurous tourism for the priority. It is important for the progress of the industry and for the mollification of the crisis consequences. For its realization the government took the decision to set the exceptional Russian natural resources in motion.

On the meeting of the inter-departmental commission on the problems of the protection of the lake Baikal that took place the 27th May the participants discussed questions on the development of the special economic zones of the recreation and tourism and the question of the destruction of the waste of the cellulose enterprise of Baikal that for several years was the leading enterprise of the region.

According to RIA “Novosti”, the members of the commission decided that the sum of investments for the project will be 18.05 milliard rubles in Irkutsk region, 38 milliard rubles in Bouryatya, 9.2 milliard rubles – state investments and 28.8 milliard rubles – private investments. This enterprise will be very profitable because it will create 2.4 thousand work places and more that 7 thousand work places in the neighbor regions.

The economic benefits are evident – organized and structural tourism will attract more foreigners. It will be simpler to control the quality of the services in the created special economic zones of the recreation and tourism than in the private sector and will cause least of damage nature and landscapes of the region.

“Baikal is a unique natural object and I'm sure that it can attract much investments but the legislation must be organized of the way that it will be possible to attract that investors and organize the infrastructural contractions without nature disturbing”, – noted the president of the inter-departmental commission of the protection of the lake Baikal and Minister of the natural resources and ecology of Russia Yuri Troutnev.

But for the moment the fortune of the special economic zones of the recreation and tourism is doubtful as the cellulose enterprise of Baikal left 6.2 million tones waste. The enterprise stopped its activity in 2008 because of the unprofitability of the production and the transition to the closed loop of water rotation. The liquidation of all waste will cost 4-10 milliard rubles. This sum will be devised equally between the budget of the Irkutsk region and federal budget. It was decided to create a working-group responsible for the project formation of the waste destruction.