What will be Ekaterinburg like 10-20 year later? This question we
discussed with Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg on Strategic Planning, Economic
Affairs and Finance Alexander Vysokinsky. The conversation was difficult, we were
constantly moving from the optimistic to the pessimistic scenario And which of
them is closer to reality is hard to understand.
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Before
we start to talk about the future, it makes sense to understand what is
happening in the city in recent years. During the 20 years after the revolution
we have come a very long way in terms of the formation of Yekaterinburg as a
whole. Many have forgotten today that
So I worked already in the Administration. The pipes of the war time, welded from defective
gun barrels, were elevating on the Uralmash plant.
They were putting the pipes as they were told by director. The task of linking all the communal system,
traffic flows, and movement of huge masses of people - into a single complex - fell
on Chernetsky. And he, in my opinion, was able to
solve this problem brilliantly. First achievement was yes, we have
survived. And we managed to establish the city as a single organism. The
second step, in 1992-95, was strategic decision-making about the way the city
has to move. From the geopolitics point
of view existing near by the three cities with millions of population in each
is nonsense. The cities which have developed by evolution (
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As I understand, the three cities are we,
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It is
too far and it is rather a large oil pumping station than the city. There is no
economy there, there is Pipe. For example I was told: The city has a great
competitive advantage - military-industrial complex. I answered: -Yes, great. In 2000 everything was in a terrible
state. Now it is really a support for the city as the Government properly
finances the state defense order in recent years. Any world crises are nothing
for those who work in defense industry. So what will be next? What if the oil
price reaches $ 50? The defense industry will come to a stop.
So on the basis of all this, in the mid of 1990-th, it
was decided that Ekaterinburg is no longer an
industrial center. We are becoming the multifunctional center to serve "Khanty-Mansi emirates',
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That is, no one has ever proceeded from the assumption that
oil would soon be worth $120?
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That
is not the question. We argued with Kovaleva, Minister
for Regional Economy then. She was saying: The program of distribution of
productive forces forever, we will create new jobs, people will get paid,
and everything will be fine.
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- Who will
buy it then, at what cost will it be obtained? I asked.
We can create the jobs in Severouralsk
Bauxite Mine, but if mining is at a depth of
In fact, it is a withdrawal from the industrial way of
life, by which all try to live. I cannot say that we were able to do everything,
but we did a lot. We have overcome that stage, when many were shouting: Chernetsky spread traders! If only one of them apologized
now. Thats usual situation. Now those who used to say that, enjoy the
infrastructure and all created over the years benefits, go to stores, shopping centers
and tell the Muscovites that we have as cool things as they. If earlier, coming
to
Ekaterinburg now is the
settlement and behavioral project, project of changing the citizens way of
thinking. Now citizens realized No one owes anything to anyone, despite all
the promises, you can wait a long time for the benefits: nothing ventured,
nothing gained. The windows glow until
Naturally, the coin has another side. We constantly
have to upstage ourselves. Weve got
clean city, really clean. But if after the snowfall we didnt remove the snow for
two days, some excellent citizen, driving a Daewoo Matiz
(the summer car by definition), begins to cry in her blog
that this is impossible to pass the city by car, that all the people lost conscience
at City Hall. I really want to answer: ride your car for about
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No, -
she is saying, - I live in this city, my children live here, I have the right
to ride what I want, and you have to provide that!
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Not only the metallurgical production, but any economic
activity is meeting a hostile reception. Economically active citizens are not
glad to the new jobs.
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Thats
right. Unemployment in
Ekaterinburg is about 0,7 %.
The critical however is 12% level. People do have job, a place to live, their
basic needs are satisfied. So we begin to think about eternal values: the
parks, bicycle paths! We begin to think about the things, which do not bring
the economic return. Im here, according to my post; speak as an apologist for
mammon. These are our arguments with Mr.Lipovich
(Deputy Head of Administration of Yekaterinburg on the accomplishment,
Transport and Environment). He says: We shouldnt let the heavy transport in the
city; let us all transfer to a bicycle and public transport. There is perfect
strategy. But when after several years he will come to me for the money on improvement of public services,
Ill say: There is no money, because there are no taxes. You have strangled
the business. Those people, that do business, pay the taxes and make the city
such as we see it now all of them are behind the wheel. Its their choice,
their space. We tell them: Transfer to the public transport, and they are
ready to do it, if it will be comfortable, fast, equipped with air conditioning
transport, where you can enter in a suit for five thousand dollars.
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Where there are no persons without place of residence.
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Yes.
If there are no such conditions, but the public transport is suppressed, these
people will just leave the city.
But this is only one of the variants of the events
development. When discussing a current phase, we broke a long way from
The state was saying: Its hard for us, but at the
same time it has funded the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of
We need a methodology for what you want, but distinct,
clear and equal for all. To receive the money from the Federation you need
to find the coin and prove that youre 1000 year old? No problem, we will
find it. Or maybe we, as
But our things are different; every case is
individual, all in the mode of fire brigade. Yes, it was normal in 90-th, in
crisis. But when only the translational motion occurs thats all, no fire
brigade; there should be scheduled work with clear methodology. We cant understand why we have regions with
one tax system, and that are the national republics, and there are Russian
subjects, where absolutely another system is. But the system of the fire
brigade is convenient to many, like in the saying blame it all on the war.
The second problem is the present picture: here we
are, the State, and there are all other municipalities where the population
lives. It turns out that the closer to the people, the less money to solve
their problem. Money and functions are distributed over the levels in inverse
proportion. The main functions from the population point of view are at the
municipal level, but at first the federal budget level is being filled. The
easiest to collect taxes go there. Only when that runs through the edge of the
barrel, the money goes to the region level. And only if everything is full,
they go to the municipal level eventually.
What is more, communication with the citizens is going
at the municipal level. In the building
of the regional government the pass is necessary; to us you can pass calmly.
The most of the letters they forward to us.
Let us compare. The budgetary provision in
Yekaterinburg is 18 -.20 million per person per year. Approximately the same is
in other megacities. The budgetary provision in the
little cities is 5 thousands. Now, attention, budgetary provision in
Further, the state considers municipalities as a
gray mass. President says: There is mess in the municipalities; we need to take the health
care service away from them. I dont understand why we should make the
conclusions based on such little settlements as Shali, Gari, Tabori, which were
finished by the State itself. Our health care is even better then the
regional. There was a good example. We were sitting with Chernetsky (Senate
parliamentary now) at a meeting with Vorobyev.
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Which year was that?
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Nothing
has changed. The meeting was devoted to the budget disagreements of the
municipalities with the region. The Ekaterinburgs disagreements are for more
then billion. But the regulations are drawn up in such a way that every
municipality has 20 minutes for a speech. We sit, wait for our turn, listen to
others, they got some problems - 5 million on the boiler room, 10 millions on
the roads. Chernetsky raises his hand and says: Alexey Petrovich, Ill solve
this one hundred myself for them, but you talk to me for the next two hours.
All the people objected, like, no, everybody must have the same amount of time!
But we are all different. Our municipality is bigger than many subjects of the
Federation.
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And here we
turn to the future. I really hope, with Putins coming to the power, the understanding
that developing only Moscow and Saint-Petersburg might end badly, will appear.
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Well have
to put a fence somewhere beyond the Urals, and give the other part of the
country to the Chinese. We need approaching points, as in aviation. That
means the agglomerations of Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and the Far East must
develop.
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- But there is such a project already, isnt it?
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The
problem is its like with the national projects. There was potency to declare,
to count up,
and redirect the federal money Here we have the subjective factor. The Urals,
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But this is the objective process, isnt it?
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This
irrepressible policy, that's all. Everything is decided by the volitional
order: "Gazprom" pays taxes here, "Rusal" there. ..
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But business is being
consolidated itself: there were small shops selling household appliances, now
there are federal networks around.
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No
problem, its objective process. But the federal network must pay the taxes for
the money, earned in Ekaterinburg, here, in Ekaterinburg. And I think there is no problem to make it on
the level of
state policy. The problem is that someone greasy will have to move over, but he
has become accustomed to his budget security.
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But with such a universal brotherhood we will have to
move aside in favor of Shali, wont we? Or is this process profitable for us?
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It is
profitable for us, because we enter into the economic sphere, the sphere of
fair, clear game. You cant be a little bit pregnant. If we go into the
market, lets go to the market. Then the clear understanding will be that
Ekaterinburgs development is the key factor for development of this node, this
part of the country. And the city gets the appropriate status the federal
city. EXPO is the way to get the federal money here. We speak of the
investment in 300 billion, considering that the city budget is 30.
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It turns out, the second budget for 10 years.
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Even
more, because the biggest part of the current budget goes not to development,
but is just being consumed. Only 4 billion go to the development. Here it will
be 40 per year! It is a tenfold increase in development budget. It will mean that
the goals, set by us in the strategy for 2025-2030 years, will be achieved by 2020. That
will be a city with two-three million people. Now we are in the grip of
children's shoes, lagging infrastructure. Look whats happening on the streets:
asphalt cannot stand, it is milled by the spikes. This is limit. But in any
case Ekaterinburg will be an inter-regional development center. There is
transport corridor
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And
although many giggle, less in the recent time, - this is the union of Ekaterinburg and
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Now
the suburbs
of Yekaterinburg have grown by
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What if there will be no EXPO? If there will be no adequate
policy? Dont you feel that the city has pressed against a ceiling and loses people,
in spite of two thousand miles to Moscow and five to Europe?
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Certainly
I feel it. We have the program The Gifted Children. Some time I ask the chiefs in the education
sphere: How do you do?
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Everything is fine, - They answer. Weve got many talented children, who
study there and there, who receive the additional education, the prizes in various competitions. But
I wonder how many of them stay in Ekaterinburg after finishing the school? Only
fifty percent stay. That's what is scaring.
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Can we seriously hope with any success of the city to
create here such comfortable environment,
that given the current mobility and fluidity, the brains will remain here?
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It is a huge mistake to think that these
people need a comfort first of all. Here we are powerless to compete, by the
way, since we will never be able to build California with palm trees and ocean.
But does Perelman (brilliant Russian mathematician) need a comfort? Whether it
was necessary to those who created the Bomb? Or was a comfort at Baikonur,
where people lived in tents? People need a Task, big and interesting Task and -
the conditions for the development.
My personal passion is the creation of the Museum of
Technology in the city. I want the pioneers could come and see firsthand the
technical evolution, the path that was passed, for example, to present
"I-Pad" from the three rooms size computer. It would be great if they were able to touch
everything with their own hands, and let there will be some workshops nearby.
There was a chance to do that, by the way, when the fate
of the exhibition on the Gromova Street was solving. But it was given to the
farmers' market. Yes, it is very important to buy cheap potatoes.
The private opinion
Evgeny Sharovarin,
producer of the technological businesses:
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One of
the main competitive advantages of
our city, which people are often forgetting about, is its compactness. The
local elites are able to look at each others eyes. There is no problem to meet
and talk. No matter how developed telecommunications are, through them we can
only discuss some issues. Decisions are made only in personal communication.
I see a logical development of the city as an IT cluster.
It is a manifested trend already: based on the developments of Soviet times, on
the large number of talented people with good technical education, on the local
effective demand, the businesses in the field of information technology and
Internet have developed and made the huge turnover in the city.
I see good prospects for high-tech agriculture. Yes, it
is quite possible in our climate. The main thing is that in large metropolitan
the stratum of educated, cultural, and at the same time, wealthy people who are
willing to pay for quality, "clean, fresh food, is really large. And I
think Ekaterinburg will go through the way of merging with Chelyabinsk.