Chukotka Governor: Pevek port to boost annual freight turnover to 500,000 metric tons within 10 years
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Fomichev

Chukotka Governor: Pevek port to boost annual freight turnover to 500,000 metric tons within 10 years

Governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Area Roman Kopin gave a presentation on the Pevek free port at a council meeting of the Plenipotentiary Presidential Envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District, the autonomous area official website reports.

Pevek port is strategically important to Chukotka and the Northern Sea Route because of its deep-water piers and high-tech equipment near the hub of the gold industry, Mr Kopin noted. Its inclusion in the free port program will spur the development of the port and the region.

The municipality of Pevek and its port area were included in the Vladivostok free port boundaries under the federal law amending Federal Law On Priority Development Areas in the Russian Federation, and under Federal Law On the Free Port of Vladivostok.

"Since 2001, the annual freight turnover of the port of Pevek has increased by almost 220 percent and now averages about 270,000 metric tons. We predict that it will reach 500,000 metric tons a year within the next ten years due to the development of the Peschanka deposit in the Baimskaya ore zone," the governor said.

Any entrepreneurial activity is allowed at the free port, except those listed by the port's supervisory board. Work is underway to draft regulations for tax breaks and preferential status for free port residents. There are plans to suspend profit tax on area budget revenues, as well as corporate and land tax.

Mr Kopin urged meeting participants not to apply profit tax preferences to gold-mining companies which are net area budget contributors. If approved by the supervisory board, this measure is in line with the law permitting entrepreneurial activity at a free port.