Speaking at the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev suggested that, in time, new towns could emerge on the basis of ‘Far Eastern hectares’, reports TASS.

“I would very much like to see new towns, new centres of population in the Russian Far East. We have now begun a programme to develop the ‘Far Eastern hectare’. We have already received in the region of 70,000 applications, and we are taking particular care to pick out collective applications, because where we have more than 20 applications together, we can help with setting up infrastructure. We are looking to identify even bigger applications, on a scale where they could help to found new towns and new population centres”, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He also noted that around 500 investment projects are currently being implemented in the region, representing more than RUB 3 trillion in declared investment. Approximately 100 infrastructure facilities are being constructed to support these projects.