The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has authorised NCR JSC to manage and operate the state and municipal land plots in the Elbrus district of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic within the special economic zone of the Elbrus tourist recreation complex. A respective supplementary agreement was signed by Alexander Tsybulky, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia, and Oleg Gorchev, the Director General of NCR JSC.

Thereunder NCR JSC shall manage the land and other real estate assets within SEZ, and implement measures to protect forests, and publish information about availability of land plots offered for rent in SEZ in open sources, etc.

‘Transfer of land management in the Elbrus region actually means NCR JSC shifting to the further development of SEZ already as a management company, meant to turn the territory into an attractive investment area and stimulate the interest of Russian business to the establishment of commercial real estate assets being potentially successful, given the privileges and preferences provided for by SEZ mechanism,’ Aleksander Tsibulskiy said commenting on the agreement.

‘Our company already has a success story in SEZ development. For just three years of existence of Arkhyz ATRC in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the namesake SEZ drew already 17 residents, and seven investors with various amounts of investment are to get the resident status soon. The document signed today, first and foremost, brings about the opportunity for NCR JSC to rent out the land plots to potential residents of the Elbrus SEZ. We are confident that their interest will be definitely high in view of the popularity of the Elbrus region as a formed tourist destination, unlike Arkhyz, where we had to create a flow of tourists almost from scratch’, Oleg Gorchev said. According to him, an important condition for a private investor to get the resident status will be the conformity of the business plans on the projects to be implemented in SEZ to the high standards of infrastructure service and quality.

According to Yury Kokov, the Head of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, in the context of import substitution in tourism, it is important to meet not only the world standards, but also to set new standards in the Caucasus and Russian hospitality, which will be an important factor in choosing the domestic ski resorts when going on holidays. The Head of the Republic emphasised the importance of the requirement for the SEZ residents to register their business in its territory. ‘The establishment of a special economic zone is a necessary expansionary business measure that would increase the regional budget income due to the increase in the number of residents paying taxes,’ he said.