One hectare of land – free and clear – for any citizen of the Russian Federation
[One hectare = 2.5 acres. RV]
Alexander Galushka, Head of The Russian Far East Development Ministry, describes the Russian government’s new initiative as “hitting the bull’s eye.” The program now has almost 44,000 submitted applications. Phase Three started on February 1, 2017, and opened up the program to the general public [whereas the first two phases made the land available to the citizens of Far East only. RV]. Galushka named the three regions in most demand today: Primorie, Khabarovsk region, and Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Most of the applications are coming from Moscow and Moscow region, Primorie, and Khabarovsk region.
The Minister also reminded us that, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), in December of 2016, 14% of Russian nationals expressed desire to get their hectare of land: 6.5% responded with a resounding yes and 7.5% said probably yes. 6.5% is already more than 10 million people; it is a great increase of population, compared to the 6.2 million that live there now. It is also quite clear at this point that with time the region’s potential will be realized, and the land will find its owners.
Alexander Galushka elaborates, “This new initiative assumes great flexibility for the new land owners. It gives people complete freedom in how they choose to use their land. A person may want to grow strawberries, build a house, grow vegetables, or keep bees. People can do anything that’s allowed by law; the sky is the limit, really.”
“All you have to do to claim your hectare is get on НаДальнийВосток.РФ and pick out a plot. You don’t even need to talk to anyone if you don’t want to. You can do it anywhere there is Internet, be it your home or any other place in the world. The processing time for an application is up to 40 days.”
“Federal IT systems had to be upgraded since we began the initiative. Right now our public GIS map [Geographical Information System. RV] can accommodate up to 5,000 individual users working with it at the same time. There are 12,000 multi-functional centers all through the Far Eastern region where one can get help with the application; we trained more than 20,000 local employees for this project.”
The minister continues, “About 28% of people getting the plots claim the construction of a home as their “main planned activity.” The second most popular activity is agricultural use: 17.5% of land owners want to grow various plants, keep bees, do animal husbandry, and so on. The third most popular proposed activity is leisure and recreation, taking up another 7%.”
Sergey Kachaev, Galushka’s Deputy Minister, continues the story, “To our great surprise, a lot of new land owners want to keep bees; this is especially true for the Amur and Jewish regions.” [The Jewish region of the Russian Federation is the world’s only officially Jewish territory besides Israel. RV]
Kachaev continues, “Some of the municipalities list beekeeping as 50% of their prospective activity. We looked into it and found that the honey is intended for export to China. The region has excellent relations with China already in place, that’s why these two regions of the Russian Far East have developed industrial production of honey. Thanks to this law initiative, the new beekeepers that received their land last summer already gathered their first harvest in the fall.”
Deputy Minister Kachaev also tells, “Among others, we have propositions to establish a tree nursery for evergreens, which would be a great help in our reforestation efforts. The people that come here are very entrepreneurial by nature, and it doesn’t surprise me a bit. Our people are very resourceful. From the very beginning, one of the main conditions of this free land initiative was complete freedom for the new land owners to use their plots any way they chose.”
There is a hotline in place 24/7 to answer any questions people may have (the phone call is free from anywhere in Russia): 8-800-200-32-51; leave a message at Viber +7-977-8234-727 and TELEGRAM HTTPS://TELEGRAM.ME/HCFE_BOT or fill out a form at надальнийвосток.рф
“The response center is well-equipped and staffed to handle 20,000 inquiries a day through multiple channels, including the ability to handle an impressive 40 phone calls simultaneously. There are 24 operators at all times in the call center alone; their number can be increased to 100 trained professionals if the need arises,” further informs Galushka.
Galina Karelova, Vice chairman of the Federation Council, explains a system of stimuli and special bonuses that is in place to help the new arrivals:
Financial and social support and bonuses [such as job placement, monetary compensation, and more. RV] are provided by the government for those considering the move to the Far East. Karelova specifies that architectural and other complex ready-to-use packages are prepared ahead of time by professional teams of the Far East Human Capital Development Agency. 30 such packages are available to anyone free of charge; they are already published on the Agency’s website.
“Many people are coming from central Russia, and they really appreciate all the help they can get. Moving to a place people are not familiar with, they will be using the provided support systems while building up their lives and businesses, adapting to the new conditions.” Galina Karelova maintains, “The more people put their efforts forwards developing the region, the better its economy will be. It will prosper through the energy, knowledge, initiative, and trust of the people that come here. Therefore, it is immensely important for the support system provided by the government to be clear-cut and work like a clock. It is important for the people looking for new opportunities, as well as for those who already live there.”
Anatoly Shirokov of the Magadan region is a Federation Council on Regional Policy, Local Leadership and Authority, and Life of The North Federal Committee member. He offers comments on the history of the free hectare law, “This law ‘grew up’ significantly since it was first introduced in May of 2016… It turned into an orderly compilation of statutes of law that open up the new Far East horizons for citizens.”
“If someone wants to claim his or her hectare of land in the Far East region, they can count on special term credit for construction, ample moving compensations and bonuses, ready-to-apply land usage packages, preferential treatment, and a number of other benefits. People need to know about that,” adds Anatoly Shirokov.
Russian source:
https://xn--80aaggvgieoeoa2bo7l.xn--p1ai/news/detail?id=231
Link active as of May 22, 2017. RV