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| Murmansk | | Print | |
| Wednesday, 20 June 2007 | |
 Murmansk is the largest world city situated beyond the Polar Circle.
 The city of Murmansk is the administrative center of the Murmansk region. It was founded on the 4th of October, 1916. Its first name (till April, 1917) was Romanov-on-Murman. The total city area is 15055 hectares including a part of the Kola bay waters with area of 1357 hectares. The city consists of three administrative districts – Leninskiy, Oktyabrskiy and Pervomaiskiy.  Nearly 40% of the region’s population lives in Murmansk. As of the 1st of January, 2006, (according to the Rosstat information) the population size is 321 thousand people. 29% of them live in the Leninskiy district, 31% in the Oktyabrskiy district and 40% in the Pervomaiskiy district. The population density is 2,1 thousand of people per 1 m2. According to the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th May, 1985, Murmansk was given a “Hero-city” honorary title. On the 11th of February, 1971, Murmansk was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and on the 2nd of December, 1982, with the Order of the Patriotic War of the First Class. According to the Federal law “On the City of Military Glory honorary title in the Russian Federation” Murmansk hero-city is given a City of Military Glory honorary title for the courage, fortitude and heroism shown by the motherland defenders In the course of the heavy and bloody battles during the Great Patriotic War. Murmansk is one of the centers of the Barents Euro-Arctic region which includes the Northern regions of Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Murmansk has agreements on the twinning and cooperation with such foreign cities as Vadsø and Tromsø (Norway), Luleå (Sweden), Rovaniemi (Finland), Jacksonvill (USA), Groningen (Holland), Akureyri (Iceland) and Szczecin (Poland). There are representative office of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of RF, consulate-general of Norway, offices of the consulate-generals of Finland and Sweden and Honorary consulate of Iceland. International seminars, conferences, meetings and exhibitions are held in the city every year.  The city is situated among the hills and on the non-freezing Kola bay coast at a distance of 50 kilometers from the outlet to the Barents sea. The city stretches along the coast line for more than 10 kilometers. The distance from Murmansk to Moscow is 1967 km, and from Murmansk to Saint-Petersburg is 1448 km. 0.15 thousand of km2 of the city area is the small hills relief. The Kola bay waters take 9% of the land total area intended for the use, the city amenity forests take 43% of it and urban green plantations for general usage take less than one per cent of it. The economical and geographical location features which determine the city development as a fishing and a sea transport center of the northwest Russia:- the transit transport links, the non-freezing port with the all-the-year-round navigation possibility and the direct outlet to the international sea trade routes in the open ocean;- the location of the large transport fleet including tanker fleet and the only in Russia the world largest nuclear-powered ice-breaker fleet ensuring all-the-year-round navigation in the Arctic;- the unique possibility to admit in the port the ships of more than 200 thousand tons;- the location in the immediate vicinity of the developed western countries and the vast regions of the Russian north allows to carry out export and import shipping operations through the Murmansk port using the Northern sea route;- the export raw-material economy of the region, the predominance on its territory of the plants used for production and delivery of the large volumes of the raw materials beyond the region boundary, outlooks for the oil and gas resources development on the Barents sea shelf.  As of the July 1st, 2006, on the territory of the city 15182 business entities are registered and entered in the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations (EGRPO), which is 9% more as compared to the same period in the last year. 5% of them is a state property and 83% is a private property. The city executes the administrative duties, it has leading positions in the economy of the region and remains the regional financial and business center. The main part of the business-infrastructure entities is located in Murmansk. Among them are the following business promotion institutions: “Small Business Development State Fund of the Murmansk region” nonprofit organization (FORMAP), “Manufacturers and Businessmen (Employers) Unit of the Murmansk region” nonprofit organization, Businessmen-Beginners Information and Consulting Center of the Northern Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Murmansk Regional Agency for Small and Middle Business Support, “Kola Business Development Center” public organization, “Women of North” social and business agency and other. The tendency for a sustainable development of the goods and services consumers’ market retained and  continued during 2006, which is based on the growth of the population income, actual growth of salaries and pensions, intensive expansion of the large company’s trading network. In this year due as well to the opening of the first polar super-regional “Ramstor” hypermarket the goods and services consumption has increased considerably as a result of the growth in the number of the buyers coming from the region. The retail trade turnover is about 31 mlrd. roubles, which is 9.6% higher than in the 2005. The payable services turnover increased by 5.8%, up to 17.3 mlrd. roubles. The turnover of the public catering increased by 6.5% in 2006 and made 1.8 mlrd. roubles. The turnover of the personal services for population grew by 13.5% up to 2.7 mlrd. roubles and made 76% of the all region turnover. Within the period under analysis, due to the construction of the new and reconstruction of the existing trade facilities a record number of trade floor spaces in recent years were put into operation (22.18 thousand m2, which is 1.6 times more than in 2005). The basic condition for stable economy developing is active investment policy. The situation with the investment activity in the town was variable, but since 2003 the tendency of its stabilization has become obvious. In 2005, investments in capital stock grew by 29% as compared with 2004.Main investment flow was directed to construction of the bridge across the Kola Bay and transportation vessels purchase. The specific weight of Murmansk in the total volume of investments within Murmansk region in 2005 was 39%. In January-November 2006 investments in capitals stocks of big and middle businesses increased by 25.5%. Now, its specific weight in the region volume totals to 45.9%.The principal directions of investing were as follows: modernization and development of transportation, communication and fish industry facilities, as well as development of the consumers’ market. Development of the town infrastructure, construction activities and industry are the condition of further capital investment growing. Total number of employees hired by big and middle businesses is 115.3 thousand people. Their average month salary has increased by 19.6% and totals to 19.1 thousand Russian roubles, that is by 9.4 % higher than the average region level. With consideration of the consumer prices, goods and payable service tariffs index (102.2%), the actual growth of salaries turned to be 117%. Some changes for the better are seen in the mining industry. In the second quarter of 2007 extraction of natural resources grew by 9.3%. It became possible only after a new modern mobile crash–and-sorting complex used to develop building stone deposits has been put in operation. Due to further development of the gravel and sand quarries production of gravel and crashed stone goes up (102.3%). Mining industry products and services are estimated in more than 73.9 million roubles, 88.5% of which make crude oil and natural gas. In 2007 development of the consumers’ market of goods and services has been constantly developing and this is conditional upon the growth of the citizens’ income, actual salaries and pensions, as well as intensive expansion of the trade nets of big companies. In the town, growth of consumption outstrips the growth of the production industry.In the running year, as on the six month results, the retail sale turnover is 18.8 milliards roubles and this is 13.3% more than in the same period of 2006.  The volume of the payable services in comparable prices has not changed, however the index of the consumers’ prices for payable services turns to be the highest on the market of goods and services (101.6%) and owing to this their turnover increased to 9.8 milliard roubles (8.6 in 2006). The volume of the every day services increased by 7.7% (to 1.576 mlrd. roubles). The turnover of the public catering increased by 9.3% and made 1 mlrd. roubles. Within the period under analysis, due to the construction of new and reconstruction of the existing trade facilities 6.03 thousand m2 of trade floor spaces, more than half of regional ones, were put into operation, 95.5% of which on account of the reconstructed areas. |
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