The Leningrad region representatives of the Party of Life has proposed creating a high-technology trade and industrial zone in the region. This should help the country solve it's problems before the planned accession to the World Trade Organization, the plan's author said.

"This will help solve the problem of the distance of large export-oriented plants from ports; a problem Russia faces with accession to the WTO," Ilya Baskin, chairman of the regional Party of Life told the journalists.

Baskin said that the existing port development plans do not take WTO prospects into account. Ports are traditionally seen as loading and unloading points separated from industrial areas. Baskin said that the trade and industrial zone, which could be called the "New Rotterdam," would best be created in the area of Ust-Luga and Sosnovy Bor, where the city's nuclear power station is situated.

Proximity to the nuclear power station would provide the zone with the adequate power supply. The region also possesses developed rail and motorways. Baskin also discussed his idea to move the rail infrastructure from the center of St. Petersburg in order to build new housing blocks on land occupied by sorting railway stations.

A project involving the transfer of the sorting station of St. Petersburg-Moscow railway to Gatchina and Mga stations in the Leningrad region, for example, will cost about $1 billion.

Baskin noted that such initiatives would only be pursued with the support from the federal government. A proposal has already been sent to St. Petersburg administration, Baskin said.

News source: www.sptimes.ru
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