Patrushev discussed the growth of the Siberian economy and launched the Omsk Refinery treatment facilities

During a working trip to the Omsk Region on July 8, Dmitry Patrushev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, discussed creating conditions for accelerated economic growth in Siberia and improving the quality of life of the population, as well as launching treatment facilities at the Omsk Oil Refinery.

Patrushev held a meeting with the heads of the regions of the Siberian Federal District jointly with Presidential Plenipotentiary Anatoly Seryshev. One of the main topics of the meeting was the implementation of the development strategy of the Siberian Federal District (SFD) until 2035.

"About 2 trillion rubles have already been attracted to its events and more than 42 thousand jobs have been created within their framework. In the future, the total volume of investments should exceed 18 trillion rubles," Patrushev said.

The development of the timber industry was also discussed. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Siberia harvests a third of the total Russian timber volumes thanks to almost 1.5 thousand local enterprises.

"In addition, about 30 priority timber industry projects are being implemented in the district to create and modernize processing facilities. The total investment volume exceeds 440 billion rubles. Undoubtedly, Siberia has significant resources to increase production volumes and organize a complete production chain, including those with a high degree of processing," he stressed.

Patrushev added that today, only 35% of the intensive zone of Siberian forests is covered by up-to-date forest management data. It is possible to improve the indicators in this sector by increasing the level of knowledge of forest reserves. It was also noted that the Federal Forestry Agency is considering the possibility of implementing a pilot project on forest management in the Irkutsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

As part of the trip, Patrushev, together with the Governor of the Omsk Region, Vitaly Khotsenko, and Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov, launched new treatment facilities at the Omsk Oil Refinery, the Biosphere complex.

"Gazprom Neft implemented this major environmental protection project as part of the national Ecology project. Investments amounted to about 30 billion rubles. Thanks to innovative technologies, the complex will effectively purify industrial wastewater, significantly reduce the use of river water and reduce the burden on the urban communal infrastructure," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

It is specified that more than 135 billion rubles have been invested in the modernization of the Omsk refinery in recent years. In addition, the obligations under the federal Clean Air project have been almost fully fulfilled.

Patrushev discussed issues of socio-economic development of the region separately with Khotsenko. He noted the strengths of the Omsk region — oil refining and petrochemistry, mechanical engineering, scientific and educational potential and agricultural production. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, over the past six years, the region has allocated about 8 billion rubles for environmental protection measures.

On June 20, Patrushev named Siberia as one of the drivers of Russia's economic development. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the adopted strategy for the development of Siberia until 2035 provides for a cluster approach in key sectors of the economy. He also added that the implementation of strategic plans will ensure a large-scale transformation of the socio-economic development of not only the Siberian Federal District in connection with the implementation of major infrastructure projects, but also the Russian economy as a whole.