Several Indian companies would like to build diamond processing enterprises in the Far East. Mumbai is hosting an Eastern Economic Forum field session chaired by the Russian deputy prime minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev.
Arseny Molchanov is reporting on Russian-Indian cooperation.
The male laundry street in the center of Mumbai is 125 years old. 7,000 people wash and dry laundry from local hotels outdoors. As many as 200 households work and live at this manual line. For the past 15 years, Uder Kumar has started daily washing at 7 a.m.
Uder Kumar, laundry worker: "3 people work for me. I pay them 10,000 rupees per month. I give them free lunch and dinner. And we all sleep here".
10,000 rupees is 10,000 rubles, or $156. It's less than the city average salary of 30,000 rupees. 2/3 of citizens live in deprived areas. A studio apartment in a block of flats costs at least 2.5 million rubles ($33,000). At the same time, Mumbai is on the world top-10 list of cities with dollar billionaires.
If Russian tourists have long associated India with yoga, dancing, or the traditional medicine of Ayurveda, then India is likely to see Russia as universities and military equipment. But in recent years, big Indian businesses have discovered the Russian Far East.
The Eastern Economic Forum field session held in Mumbai reminded businesses of the advantages of working in priority development areas. The Amur region is part of the Far East. There are more than 1,600 projects worth $60 billion in the priority development areas. There are a 0% tax rate, a streamlined process for importing equipment, and no bureaucracy. The TT Power company invested $600 million in the development of the Krutogorski coal site back in 2017. It only asked for subsidies for logistics.
Yury Trutnev, Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District: "They asked us to help them build the road and the port, and we agreed. Now there are legal arrangements being made as they seek to hedge all risks. They take the project very seriously, which is natural as the investment amount is as big as $600 million".
No roads or railway used to reach extraction sites. Nor were there electrical networks. Now they are all built by foreigners supported by the Russian government.
Leonid Petukhov, Far East Investment Agency CEO: "When coming to Russia from China, we saw every spot being used in China, unlike the Far East. An inventory check revealed that the reason was that many areas weren't registered in the cadaster. So, now we systematically work to register territories in the cadaster, give the Far East Development Corporation infrastructure, and then give it to the investors for free. Such a free land database is available online. We're launching the full-scale service within 2-3 weeks".
Another issue is diamonds. The marker is going to divide into those extracting natural gems and those producing them artificially. This is not the only problem of Indian investors.
Anup Meta (запрещена в РФ), President of Bharat Diamond Bourse: "We're facing various challenges now. The world demand for diamonds has been decreasing due to an upcoming global recession provoked by trade wars. At the same time, banks are reducing financing".
Nevertheless, KJK Group, India, has invested over $7 million in gem-cutting in the Far East. It's also training new staff. Another project, M Suresh, worth $4.5 million, is planned. This, among other things, will boost Russian-Indian trade. In 2018, it reached almost $11 billion. And it's likely to keep growing. Perhaps, for this reason, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited to the Eastern Economic Forum as the main guest.
Arseny Molchanov, Viktor Vinogradov for Vesti from Mumbai, India.
