17.05.2024
The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has approved three orders aimed at modernizing the mechanism of special economic zones (SEZs).
In particular, it has approved a form of the agreement on the establishment and the management of a SEZ, a procedure for processing and submitting an application for the establishment and the expansion of the territory of a SEZ, passport forms and financial models for tenants’ investment projects, as well as criteria and methods for their assessment.
– As for the form of the agreement on the establishment and the management of a SEZ, there will now be one agreement instead of three, which means less bureaucracy in its preparation. And regions will start working with tenants more quickly – it will save up to two months of effective time. All the previous agreements will be re-signed by September 1, 2025, – comments Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia.
Regarding the procedure for processing and submitting an application for the establishment and the expansion of the territory of a SEZ, the Deputy Minister stated that the structure of such applications and the list of documents applied to them have been modified in accordance with the criteria for the establishment of a SEZ, which were updated in February of this year.
Mikhail Labudin, Director of the Association of Clusters, Technoparks and SEZs of Russia, noted that, in accordance with the new criteria, special economic zones will be established as clusters, i.e. in one or adjacent fields. The criteria for expanding the territory of a SEZ, which were previously absent in the legal framework, have also been defined.
– We will now require a more detailed preparation of projects, and we have enabled an opportunity for a region to submit an electronic application. For context, a single application could previously contain 10 boxes of documents, – said Dmitry Vakhrukov.
Tamara Rondaleva, General Director of SEZ St. Petersburg, noted that the new form significantly simplifies an investor's work on a project, replacing the massive multi-page business plan that was previously required.– We are simplifying the forms of the documents without compromising the content - instead of 200 pages, the information about the project can now be presented on 5-10 sheets and attached by an electronic financial model, which will include all the detailed calculations, – emphasized Dmitry Vakhrukov.
– In addition to reducing paperwork, this also saves time and human resources - key factors for an investor. The time required to review such a document is also reduced, and it simplifies the procedure of becoming a SEZ tenant many times over, – said Tamara Rondaleva.
Source: the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
