The district authorities are prescribing schemes for interacting with investors as part of a global project.
The largest project in Yugra to create the Scientific and Technical Center “UNITI Park” is estimated at 90 billion rubles. This information was shared by the Deputy Governor of the region Vladislav Nigmatulin, indicating that in 2015 investments were estimated at 52 billion. However, the district authorities do not yet consider these amounts to be final, and they do not refuse a large project, despite the difficult economic situation. Moreover, in the official Khanty-Mansiysk, they are preparing to begin construction of one of the STC facilities – the Center for High Biomedical Technologies. The Shvabe-Moscow company has already been involved in cooperation, which will erect the buildings of the facility in the coming years. Investors are already interested in the creation of UNITY Park, where a university, a technology park, an exhibition center and other facilities should also appear, and negotiations have begun with them in the regional government. Taking into account the fact that a significant part of the infrastructure will be fully built in the coming years, developers are also paying attention to the site, assessing their possibilities for commissioning housing within the framework of the STC project. However, the authorities “expect to share the financing of the construction site exclusively at the expense of budgetary funds with partners” and today they are considering various options.
The government of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra said that “it is planned to complete the design of the Center for High Biomedical Technologies this year”, which should further unite the scientific and educational community around genetic engineering and research projects. The NRC “Kurchatov Institute”, the Institute of Molecular Biology named after A.I. V.A. Engelhardt RAS and others.
“Expert opinion is taken into account when creating and equipping the Center, which will include laboratories for molecular genetic research methods, cellular, microfluidic technologies, mass spectrometry, bioinformatics and a biobank,” Deputy Governor Vladislav Nigmatulin said.
In the future, the center “will allow the creation of systems for diagnosing socially significant diseases, new medications, and will also contribute to the creation of a national database of genetic information.”
Deputy Governor of KhMAO Vladislav Nigmatulin
The contractor for the design and construction of the facility was the Shvabe-Moscow company (part of the Rostec Group of Companies), which received a contract worth more than 4.7 billion rubles. According to the deputy governor, the cost of the facility does not change, the sanctions only affected the delivery time of the equipment, and the construction of the center will take about two years. However, preparations for its further work have already begun.
The regional authorities are setting the task of attracting large investors to the project of the scientific and technological center “UNITI Park”, which has long outgrown the regional level. The project itself received priority status back in 2019, and in 2020 the governor of Yugra, Natalia Komarova, showed the President of Russia the scale of the STC. The head of state supported the idea of building a center in Surgut.
The STC, in addition to the Center for High Biomedical Technologies, includes the creation of a new university, a research center, a technology park, a convention and exhibition center, housing and social infrastructure for workers and students.
The main attention will be focused on the development of scientific and educational activities in the field of oil and gas production, including hard-to-recover reserves. As conceived by the authors of the project, it will attract wide attention of oil and gas industry companies, increase the investment attractiveness of Surgut and put it on the level of federal research centers.
In parallel with the detailed design of the project, work has already been launched to create an engineering infrastructure (main road, water conduits, storm sewers, etc.) at the STC site of 70 hectares, and funding for this activity has been supported at the federal level.
According to a representative of the Ugra government, various schemes for raising funds are being considered, including within the framework of public-private partnerships. Developers are already showing interest in building new housing on the NTC site.
Interest in the implementation of the global project is also expressed by VEB Engineering LLC, VTB Capital JSC, Sberbank PJSC, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses. Work with each of them is carried out on an individual basis, and in the near future the regional authorities are preparing to present schemes for interaction with investors.
