In 2014, Dagestan has seen many significant events. In addition to the declared "Year of Culture", authorities did a lot for improving the living standards and developing the major and minor sectors of economy. RIA Dagestan sel ected the republic’s top 10 events of 2014.
1. From us to our people in Ukraine
2. Sample Unified State Examination
3. Cleaning October Revolution Canal
8. Fruits and vegetables all year round
9. To work and back home in a new bus
These are only a few events Dagestan has seen this year. For the first time in recent years, Dagestan is among the leaders of the country in terms of economic development. We hope that in the future our republic will be one of the most investment attractive regions of Russia.
From us to our people in Ukraine
This year, the Russians regained a long forgotten feeling of unity, patriotism, solidarity and compassion at the national level - the country sheltered, fed, and even employed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine.
In this respect, Dagestan played a key role. We were the first to provide humanitarian assistance to the brotherly country. Within two days, Dagestanis collected 80 tons of humanitarian aid that was sent in trucks to Crimea on March 6 right from the central square of Makhachkala. They also opened a special account in Rosselkhozbank JSC (Russian Agricultural Bank) to allot donations for the inhabitants of the peninsula.
Sample Unified State Examination
In the past year, 26,043 schoolchildren took the Unified State Examination in the republic. Most notably this year, Dagestan showed the most objective and fair results of the exam according to Sergey Kravtsov, the head of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science.
For the first time in recent years, Daghestan managed to hold a "dirtproof" examination. This suggests that local authorities and officials from the Russian Ministry of Education and the Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency are set up to restore order in this regard.
Cleaning October Revolution Canal
Official data say that cleaning the main waterway of the republic – the October Revolution Canal – that included a number of large-scale campaigns helped take out 15,000 tons of garbage. It was a four-day event involving 200 sanitation trucks, municipal workers, and Makhachkala residents (500 people in total). A running meter of the canal had up to 7 cubic meters of garbage. Importantly, it was the first large-scale clearing in the canal’s history.
For Dagestan, 2014 was rich in forums of different level and status. One of the key events in this respect was the Russian cultural and investment forum titled "Culture and economy of regional policy in modern context".
Participants of the forum – representatives of Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, and republican ministers – visited various discussion platforms and noted the significance of the event.
Different kinds of recommendations adopted here speak for the forum’s relevance for the republic. E.g., they proposed to systematically fund culture and arts, develop public and private partnership, and establish grants in the field of culture and arts in the regions, which in itself of key importance for Dagestan.
November 21-23, Makhachkala was hosting the First Dagestan Forum for Industrialists and Entrepreneurs as part of the International Entrepreneurship Week declared in 150 countries. The forum featured an exhibition named "100 best goods of Dagestan" held in a makeshift pavilion assembled in the central square of the Dagestan’s capital.
The republic had been hosting a forum of this magnitude for the first time. Participants discussed issues of concern to business – the future of Dagestan, the vector of its development, the potential of its industry, the future of its economy, and its fate as a subsidized region.
The forum assembled Dagestani deputies of the State Duma, officials from the Russian Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Dagestani authorities, and representatives of the Dagestani Diaspora in Turkey.
Ramazan Abdulatipov declared the key goal of the forum was to understand and analyze the current situation and all the "pain points" of Dagestan.
Few airlines, low competition and high prices for tickets – the range of problems rested on the fact that the Makhachkala international airport’s runway used to be far fr om meeting federal standards.
But December 19, 2014, the reconstructed and extended runway was put into operation. The inconvenience of a few months’ long repairs with having to go as far as the Grozny and Mineralnye Vody, is over.
The renovated Makhachkala airport will be able to accept all types of aircraft, hence bringing new carriers to the Dagestani air services market.
Most recently, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered to ensure a faster development of Dagestan. The order implies taking a number of specific measures in manufacturing, energy, defense industry, agriculture, fishery, education, tourism and business.
Interestingly, the approach to development was meant for several regions. Following the order, resettlement of population of the Novolak region to a new location will be completed in the republic, and by 2016 all the activities in the flood zone of the Gotsatli HPP will be to finished, too.
Also, the Dagestan government in collaboration with the Russian Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs will have to approve a plan for encouraging import substitution in agriculture in the republic in 2015-2016.
Fruits and vegetables all year round
Having domestic fresh tomatoes even in the winter? That’s what they made possible by opening a 4-hectare greenhouse complex in the suburbs of Makhachkala. They use the most advanced technology of growing vegetables employed in countries such as the Netherlands, Israel, Turkey, and Spain.
The project initiators claim that as soon as this January, people will be able to taste the fresh-grown food. Total capacity of the greenhouse complex is 4,000 tons of vegetables a year (3,000 tons of tomatoes and 1,000 tons of cucumbers).
To work and back home in a new bus
Earlier in the week, "large class" buses arrived in Makhachkala. They are beautiful and spacious buses manufactured by the Neftekamsk automobile plant that the republican government had bought to serve inner city routes of the capital.
The transport is environmentally friendly because they operate on natural gas. A bus can place over 100 people - 24 seats, over 70 standees, and places for people with disabilities and prams.
This situation is similar to what happened in 2002, when Dagestan received 62 "PAZ" buses. This year’s buy is an attempt to restore and revive public transport in Makhachkala.
The Caspian Sea that washes the republic is rich in minerals including oil and gas. To boost economic efficiency of the Dagestan’s oil and gas complex, the republic’s head initiated establishment of Dagestan State Oil and Gas Company JSC in March 2014.
The company aims at attracting investment, exploiting and producing oil and gas in the region, selling oil products, and accelerating socio-economic development of the republic.
