vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #163 / Business / Reading article...

Canadians, like Russians, know about cold winters. When temperatures drop to 30 or 40 degrees below zero Celsius, building exteriors can crack and water pipes rupture, unless they are made with special cold-resistant materials.

That was the message brought this month by a delegation of Canadian businessmen and politicians, whose plans for Primorye and the Far East include innovative construction technology designed for cold climates and measures for greater Canadian investment in the region.

The first part of the plan is to build five “show homes” in the Far East and establish a Canadian business center in Vladivostok. The houses, to be built over the next three years in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Yakutsk, Khabarovsk, Magadan, and Vladivostok, will have cold-resistant frames, windows, foundations, and sewer systems, said Robert Doherty, president of Canada North Projects, Ltd., in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. With energy-efficient, cost-effective technologies, the Canadians hope houses will serve as models for building more durable, “effective” housing here in the Far East. They will also allow Canadian construction engineers to instruct Russian engineers in the use of these technologies.

“This is part of a larger strategy to help Primorye reform its housing and construction industries,” said Doherty. “We don’t have a lot of money but we have good technology and the sincerity of our project.”

The Canadian delegation, headed by Deputy Premier for the Northwest Territories (NWT) Goo Arlooktoo, signed a memorandum of intention with the krai and met local officals, including Mayor Victor Cherepkov and Vice Gov. Igor Belchuk.

Belchuk, whose office oversees housing construction, as well as roads, transportation, and communications in the krai, made it clear to the Canadians that apart from housing, the region is also seeking assistance with coastal development, road improvements, and reconstruction of farms.

According to Doherty, his company’s cost of construction is US$700 per square meter – a figure based on the “Svoi Dom” project standards, which dictate that the per-square-meter cost of construction should not exceed twice the average monthly wage. By comparison, average construction costs per square meter for apartments and simple houses here range from $650 to $1,000, according to the Construction Institute at the Far Eastern State Academy of Economics and Management.

“We feel we can share a lot of our technology in production, and the technological advantages we have from years of building in small communities which don’t have a lot of services,” said Floyd Roland, a NWT legislator and observer with the delegation. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to show that we have something worthwhile to offer.”

The business center, scheduled to open by autumn, will initially be located in rented space and will offer offices to Canadian companies to showcase their products and services, Doherty said. The center will also have communication and office facilities to support Canadian companies, construction or otherwise, seeking to establish a presence in Primorye.

Canadian investment in the Far East and in Russia as a whole has been minimal in recent years, according to Stephanie Allard, second secretary in the trade section of the Canadian embassy in Moscow. Over the past six years, Canadian investments nationwide have totaled only US$450 million.

As Doherty put it: “Everybody knows that you don’t go into Russia to do work if you don’t have the stomach for risk. You have to be flexible, you have to be innovative.”

“The idea of having this Canadian business center,” he added, “is to try and address some of those concerns, profile the right way to do business here, assist Canadian companies to enter this market.”