vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #153 / Business / Reading article...

Local companies show little interest in Sakhalin

A new round of contract bidding for the Sakhalin I and II oil projects will begin later this quarter and in the start of next year. Though Sakhalin production-sharing agreements require 70 percent of work to be given to Russians, foreign investors haven’t seen a great deal of interest from local companies, according to news reports. The only exception are enterprises in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, most prominently the Amursky Shipbuilding Plant, which won a $35 million contract earlier this year. Despite Primorye’s well-developed industrial complex and staggering unemployment rate, krai companies have offered few bids on Sakhalin projects, press reports said.

Market reverses ban on Chinese traders

A dearth of Russian traders at the Nekrasovskaya Street indoor market led store management to lift a prohibition on renting stalls to Chinese entrepreneurs recently. More than 70 stalls were filled by Chinese immigrants, and the number of customers at the market swelled. In turn, that increase led Russian workers to open over 27 new kiosks in the surrounding areas a week later.

Only 24 brokerages have license to sell securities

A spokesman for the licensing department of the Federal Securities Commission’s Primorye branch said that only 24 investment and brokering companies possess a license allowing them to sell non-government securities on the local stock market. More than nine unlicensed companies, which include well-known traders Pacific Securities, Vladinvest, and Prisco Stocks, face the threat of legal action unless they stop doing business on the stock market.

Krai faces forest shortfall

Enterprises renting forest areas must now pay 40 percent of their rent to the federal government and 60 percent to the krai budget instead of paying everything to the krai, according to a new federal code. Facing a 15 billion ruble loss, krai officials say they will now be unable to pay district employees in forest nurseries and parks. As a result, Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko and the Krai Duma will discuss the possibility of leaving all krai taxes in district budgets to retain work in the krai’s nature preserves.