Almost 60% of residents called the Russian monocities socio-economic situation of their city or intolerable “tolerable hard”, 5% think that live below the poverty line, and nearly 36% say that finding a decent job in their city almost impossible. These are the results of the survey service of special communication and information FSO of Russia ( managed to read them). The survey was conducted in December 2015 201 in the village, participated 55,6 thousand persons.
A similar survey was conducted in June 2015. From the comparison it follows that in six months the perception of the socio-economic situation in mono-cities in General have deteriorated (see graphs in the incision).
In a press-service FSO have not responded to the request , but the authenticity and the order of the data was confirmed by a source in the government. The spokesman said that he was aware of the survey and that the results of surveys of residents of single-industry towns every six months are sent to the Ministry. “This analyst is prepared to assign single-industry towns to the categories “red”, “yellow” or “green”, — explained the representative of Fund of development of monotowns (established by Vnesheconombank in 2014).
A source in the government said that the FSO may conduct surveys on the most pressing problems (for example, in may 2014 wrote about a survey on the state of interethnic relations). And the government uses survey data to the FSO along with sociological surveys companies. “Surveys of the FSO are seen as an opportunity to create a more complete picture on a given issue”, — said the interlocutor . He adds that the FSO data may differ from survey data of other companies the fact that they are “more conservative”.
“Conservatism is that there is no attempt to exaggerate the scale of the problem,” says the source . Previously Deputy Chairman of Vnesheconombank Irina Makieva, which is leading a working group under the government on modernization of single-industry towns, in an interview with Bloomberg said that the group relies on data from FSO.
What is asked of residents of single-industry towns?
Residents of single-industry towns that participated in the survey, were asked to assess the overall socio-economic situation in the city and their financial situation, and to Express opinion on the ways of solving socio-economic problems. A separate block of questions concerned the problems of the labor market: participants were asked to rate the level of unemployment and what opportunities there are to find in decent work “normal working conditions and good salary”. Another question was about the work of employment services: residents asked to answer the question, are they willing to go to employment if they lose their jobs and what help they would ask for it.
Also the respondents were asked to rate the level of entrepreneurial activity, including call promising directions of business development in their city. In addition, the survey dealt with attitudes towards municipal authorities (their ability to control the socio-economic situation). Additionally, residents were asked to rate which issues of housing, health care and pre-school education are the most acute and require immediate solution.
The number of single-industry towns crisis grows
Only in Russia there are 319 single-industry towns, they are inhabited by 14 million people. Only in 71 the city’s socio-economic situation “stable”, said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in July last year at the government meeting in the single-industry town of Usolye-Siberian. For the year since 2014 the number of single-industry towns, which are the crisis, has increased from 75 to 94, was admitted there the Minister of economic development Alexei Ulyukayev. “The tools that we zabaglione four years, will last for 20-30 of single-industry towns, 20-30 projects…” he warned.
What will the government do?
The issue of support of single-industry towns rose sharply after another round of crisis and reduction of the Federal budget. In the current crisis, the authorities decided to reconsider its approach to the support of single-industry towns and trying to convert to attract investors given the lack of opportunities to pour budget money into social problems in company towns.
In February of this year at the meeting of the President with members of the government first Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on the reduction of financing of the program of monotowns in 2016 as part of a General retrenching from the original 10.8 billion rubles. “We have this figure identified in the region of 7 billion,” he said. In the anti-crisis plan that the government has approved in principle on February 18, all in support of single-industry towns it is planned to allocate 12.8 billion rubles, including from the budget of 7.2 billion is Expected this support will create more than 3 thousand new jobs and attracted more than 7 billion rubles. private investment in the crisis of company towns.
“If anti-crisis plan approved, will get another 5.6 billion rubles., We believe that 30-35 cities with the money you can seriously maintain with the point of view of conversion. Not enough at all, but you can use many support tools: industrial parks, programs for small and medium enterprises, subsidies to industrial parks, dozens of measures in agriculture, the formation and training of management teams 319 the company towns and so on. Plus the towns from the first group [red zone] can now expect to receive the status of territories of priority development, however, after representatives of the towns will be trained management teams on the development of single-industry towns”, — said the representative of Fund of development of monotowns.
Strikes in company towns
Strike of miners
In 2008 in Severouralsk strike took place 107 miners of the mine “Red riding hood” JSC “Sevuralboksitruda” (part of RUSAL), which refused to rise to the surface. They, in particular, demanded higher wages and the abolition of the Sabbath shifts. The miners continued to strike under the ground for almost ten days, during this time, against them, a lawsuit was filed in the court. As a result, the mine owners and striking miners have found a compromise.
The truce ended and the strike of miners at the same mine in 2012. Then striking 14 people, who also refused to leave the mine and demanded better working conditions and higher wages, wrote “Kommersant”. The strikers then left the mine the next day.
Unrest in Pikalyovo
In the fall of 2008 three main enterprise of Pikalyovo in the Leningrad region are unable to negotiate prices for imported raw materials. As a result of their work was stopped, and thousands of people lost their jobs. In addition, in may 2009 because of debts for gas supplies “BaselCement-Pikalevo” was stopped by the local CHP.
In protest against difficult socio-economic situation on 2 June 2009, around 300 local residents blocked the Federal highway Novaya Ladoga — Vologda. On the same day the Governor signed a resolution on allocating 5 million rubles to repay the debt on a salary before workers of the CHP, about 1 million 700 thousand rubles were allocated to support the residents of the district who are in a difficult situation, and two days later Vladimir Putin demanded to restore the work of the industrial complex.
Rallies on “Russian tungsten”
In 2009, the Lermontov ore mining and processing plant, owned by LLC “Russian tungsten”, have stopped their work due to the high cost of production of tungsten and owe workers wages for the sum about 12 million rbl. the company’s Employees held a rally, demanding the state to buy out the production from the owner and to repay the debts on a salary, and threatened to block Federal highway, as it happened in Pikalyovo.
After meeting in the Kremlin Vladimir Putin met with Primorye territory Governor Sergei Mr Darkin was announced about the agreement with LLC “Russian tungsten” on the Lermontovsky GOK to rent for five years, the regional kgup “Primteploenergo”, the workers were paid salary arrears.
The government now plans to work with all 319 towns, and not only those that are in the “red” zone, said Shuvalov. The head of Fund of development of monotowns Ilya Krivogov stated that this measure would “reduce the desire of subjects to translate stable towns in the list of the most disadvantaged, to get additional funding” (to quote the Foundation’s website).
Now the economic development Ministry jointly with interested Federal Executive authorities is considering the possibility of adjusting General approaches to the classification of single-industry towns and updating of criteria for their selection to receive government support, said the representative of the Ministry of economic development. Including talking about “the possibility of creating a TORUS in the territories of single-industry towns, regardless of their classification as category”.
How to attract investors?
In September 2015, Ulyukayev at the meeting with the President Vladimir Putin said that the Ministry received 16 applications from eight regions to create a top in mono. Of these, four were selected — Usole-Sibirskoe (Irkutsk region), Gukovo (Rostov oblast), Yurga (Kemerovo region) and Naberezhnye Chelny (Tatarstan). To date, THOR was created in Gukovo and Naberezhnye Chelny, said the spokesman. The representative of the Ministry has not responded to the question, how many applications in the Ministry.
Now the Fund of development of monotowns has concluded a General agreement with 24 single-industry towns. The Fund committed to co-Finance the infrastructure needed to implement investment projects in nine towns, to 5.1 billion rubles, the Implementation of these projects will create more than 11.5 thousand jobs and attract investment of 44.2 billion rubles, said the representative of Fund of development of monotowns. From September 2015 working were 17 investment projects with a total investment of 44.6 billion rubles, including the resources of the Fund is 11.3 billion rubles, and the number of new jobs — 8,1 thousand
The status of the TORUS is given to single-industry town for ten years, renewable for five years. Him resident TOR receives tax breaks on profits in the first five years: he is exempt from paying Federal tax (2% from 20%), the regional part of tax is reduced to 5%. Residents were also exempt from property and land taxes and get the exemption on payments to non-budgetary funds. Thus, the fiscal burden is reduced 4.5 times compared to normal mode. Resident in turn must create at least 20 jobs and invest in new project not less than RUB 5 million, was previously explained Alexey Ulyukayev.
