The Institute of Contemporary Development held a roundtable on “Single-Industry Cities During a Time of Crisis: Survival Strategy”.
 
The event was attended by representatives of the Presidential Administration, federal and regional governments, the Public Chamber, the Institute of Contemporary Development, top managers of such companies as RZhD, Severstal-Group, SUEK, BazelCement, AIZhK, AVTOVAZ, Wimm-Bill-Dan Foods as well as researchers, labor experts and economists.
 
Opening the roundtable, professor Evgeny Gontmakher, member of the INSOR management board, stressed the importance of the topic, "as single-industry cities have been hit the hardest by the crisis.” He also expressed hope that the discussion will help find necessary solutions to resolve social problems in such cities.
 
The roundtable touched on the issues of alleviating the social impact of the crisis in mill towns, providing territorial and inter-industry mobility of workers, the role to be played by the business community and the public sector in securing employment as well as public-private partnerships for carrying out housing projects.
 
Andrei Kortunov, president of the New Eurasia Foundation emphasized the importance of establishing public-private partnerships in single-industry cities. “The companies around which the cities have developed, local administrations, communities and social organizations must interact effectively. This is the only way for each participant of the partnership to achieve a positive result. The local government must diffuse social tensions and provide control over budgetary expenditures in the regions; the companies must improve competitiveness and make social outlays more efficient; the public must overcoming social apathy, provide employment and diffuse social tensions,” Kortunov said.
 
A specific example of successful partnership between the state and the private sector was presented by deputy director general of SUEK Alexander Grigoriev. He spoke about a company providing affordable housing. “The partnership between the state and the private sector in housing allows us to solve the housing problem with minimal budget expenditures, providing a high level of social stability,” he said. Chairman of the board of directors of Irkutsk mortgage agency Vladimir Shcherva was more specific. In light of the shortage of affordable good-quality housing across Russia he suggested the following:
 

• to have the federal authorities define the notion of “affordable housing” and the “affordability threshold”
• to create the necessary conditions for businesses engaged in construction of affordable housing
• to secure an 11% interest rate on mortgages in affordable housing construction projects involving the state and private business
• to make it possible for the Russian Mortgage Agency to refinance loans extended to small investors in affordable housing projects

 
Summing up the discussion, Gontmakher pointed out that today there were three major issues facing single-industry cities: employment, housing and establishing a dialogue between businesses, the state and people. “We will prepare a document to be sent to the Russian president, the Cabinet, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs as well as all the relevant ministries,” he said.