Governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area Dmitry Kobylkin came up with the idea of state contracts for manual labor needed to implement projects in the Arctic. The idea was suggested by Kobylkin at the United Russia's Supreme Council Bureau meeting and recommended for inclusion in the national youth policy strategy, the local government website reports.

"Future projects, particularly infrastructure projects, will attract a large number of young people with vocational occupations. One hundred thousand jobs created in the Arctic means 1.4 million jobs elsewhere; 1 million jobs means 14 million jobs in Russia. This is a huge potential that must be used," he said.

The project gives priority to personnel recruitment for the region, where industrial and economic growth is planned. State contracts for Arctic manual labor are of importance in this connection. Federal laws and regulations and Arctic development programs should be amended with norms and terms of cooperation between the authorities, enterprises and educational establishments in providing personnel for Arctic investment projects.

According to the regional government press service, new facilities in the region are manned mainly by young people. Workers are recruited from all over Russia, and they take corporate training or retraining courses.

"I know that it is difficult to redistribute labor resources from big cities to the North. But I think that this is inevitable. Whether we can do that on a systematic basis or not depends on us. Future projects, particularly infrastructure ones, will attract a large number of young people with vocational skills and highly skilled workers," Kobylkin said.

The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area proposal will be submitted to State Duma deputies for consideration at thematic sessions.