In May, a traffic movement on the automobile part of a bridge across the Kerch Strait will be opened. By the summer of 2018, a new terminal of the Simferopol airport is scheduled to be put in operation and the first power units of the Simferopol and Sevastopol TPPs are planned to be launched.
These facilities will solve the problem of energy shortage in the Crimea. The cost of these projects for the Russian budget has amounted to about 300 billion rubles ($5,2 billion).
And yet, public funding of the Peninsula’s development still far exceeds private investments. Over the past four years, Moscow has allocated to the region 314 billion rubles ($5,5 billion), let alone the expenditure on the Crimean bridge construction and other federal programs. While private investment is estimated at 190 billion rubles ($3,3 billion).
Solving basic infrastructure issues — transport accessibility and energy generation — will make the Crimea more attractive to investors, Fontanka, an online newspaper based in St. Petersburg, reports referring to representatives of the region’s business community. “Currently, the Crimea is attractive to those investors who understand that there will be development. There is no doubt that commissioning of the bridge and TPP will make things better. I am very optimistic about the development of the Crimea,” Elena Lashkova, Director General of Geoizol, a company specializing in hydraulic engineering works and expertise, was quoted as saying by Fontanka.
The lack of infrastructure is not the only problem of the Peninsula though, businessmen are unwilling to invest for fear sanctions. Also, there is a lack of qualified personnel and banks in the Crimea, Elena Lashkova noted.