Better living conditions - priority for Sakhalin and Kuril Islands

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, February 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Improvement of life
quality of those who live on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, support for
their families, for maternity and childhood - are the priority tasks for
the current year's development of the Sakhalin Region, Governor Alexander
Khoroshavin told the regional government.
The regional government will compensate 50 percent of the price of new
housing and vitamin-rich food for pregnant women. The so-called mother's
capital of 150,000 roubles from the local budget will be paid to families
with three children, and their expenses for kindergartens will be 100
percent covered by the government.
"Another direction of the key family policies is providing places in
kindergartens for children," the governor said. "Over the current year, we
shall begin constructing five new kindergartens and the same number of old
kindergartens will be reconstructed."
"If we continue the work from year to year, we shall be able to
correct the situation within several years, and the businesses will be
involved in financing construction of new kindergartens."
The progress of housing construction is another key sector, he added.
Sakhalin plans to introduce new 250,000 square metres of housing. The
region will adopt a programme of modernising healthcare and professional
education; every school will have its own development programme. The
regional programme to develop sports will have a paragraph about
construction of the regional centre for winter sports. Another programme
to appear will be called the Sakhalin and Kuril's Youth. Its main targets
would be to provide housing for the young generation, youth
entrepreneurship, support for young scientists and talented youth,
attraction of young specialists to the budget sphere.
In the economic sphere the region will have to face tasks to develop
infrastructures and to diversify the regional economy. Two oil and gas
projects Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 will favour solving the tasks. The
region plans that the third line for production of liquefied gas and the
Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas transporting system will make their
input in the economy.
One of main achievements of the past year is that the Sakhalin Region
got a status of a financially self-sufficient region.
"We have achieved equal partner relations with the federal centre,
which resulted in an unprecedented decision to share profits from the line
producing liquefied natural gas," the governor said. "This is a
breakthrough, a basis for further development of the region and its firm
leading position among the Far East territories."
Khoroshavin said also that from 2013 the region will get major
revenues from this source, that is why it is necessary now already to work
out plans to use them most effectively.
Sakhalin is a large island. Following the collapse of the Soviet
Union, Sakhalin has experienced an oil boom with Russian and foreign oil
companies pouring into the island, bringing with it much needed investment
in the islands infrastructure. Yuzho-Sakhalinsk's population is about
173,000.