Creation of a base for ship-building and repair of vessels at the Black Sea coast of Russia will have positive effect on regional development

Creation of a base for building and repair of vessels at the Black sea coast of Russia will have positive effect on regional development. This opinion was expressed earlier today by a member of the Expert Council under the Government of Russia, Sergey Shishkarev, commenting upon the results of a Sochi meeting on the questions of the Black Sea fleet stationing. 

After the Olympic Games the South of Russia will certainly encounter a development boom that is why we “need to create industrial capacities on the basis of building and service of recreational crafts. And this is closely tied to the building of marines”, – says Shishkarev.

As to the plans for creation of a Russian base for ship-building and vessels repair at the Black Sea coast, Shishkarev marked that the implementation of this project faces certain impediments. One of them is unresolved question of allocation of the territory for military storages and creating appropriate conditions for ammunition supply loading and delivery at Maliy Urtisch region.

According to Shishkarev, “this issue will be tackled with at the level of the Ministry of natural resources, region of Krasnodarskiy kray and the Ministry of defense”. He also affirmed that there are some arrearage at financing of the construction of stationing site of Black Sea fleet in Novorossiysk. “We see a certain slippage of financing schedule. It is evident that constructors are working in accordance with the approved program, a derangement owing solely to the Ministry of finance”, – outlined Sergey Shishkarev. He also noted that a strategic agreement with Ukraine on the deployment of Black Sea fleet vessels in Sevestopol is still in function. The construction of home of stationing site will let us increase capacities for vessels repair and maintenance.

In the words of the member of the Expert Council, the main objective of today’s meeting is coordination of the project capacities for shipbuilding and repair with fleet demands for vessels maintenance in operational condition. Shishkarev expressed assurance that “given the program of armament and equipment and ships coming to combat alert duty in 2014-2015, the vessels repair capacities do not correspond fleet capacities”. He said that apart from creating a South centre for ship-repair, a task had been set before the United Shipbuilding Corporation to investigate a possibility of shipbuilding.

Mr. Shishkarev conveyed that European ship-builders expressed keen interest to the Black Sea coast in the course of the last visit of Russian delegation to the largest Italian dockyard “Fimminarika”. A reciprocal visit is expected shortly. They expect to discuss prospects for cooperation.

Tatyana Polinyk

Source – ITAR-TASS.