Oleg Korneev: tenders for granting forest plots for use should be in the electronic form

A meeting in Khabarovsk on the state of the forestry-industry complex in the Far East

Last week Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation – Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far East Federal District, Yuri Trutnev chaired a meeting on the state of the forestry-industry complex in the Far East.

Representatives of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, the Ministry for Developing the Far East, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finances, the Ministry of Economic Development, the executive bodies of Far East regions and some investment companies attended the event. The antimonopoly authority was represented by Head of FAS Department for Control over Construction and Natural Resources.

The focus was on the state of the sector in general and the related problems, increasing efficiency of forestry-industry complex in the Far East, entry of investors to the sector and an investment project – formation of a pulp-and-paper plant in the Khabarovsk region.

Oleg Korneev pointed out: “Developing a mechanism to support investors in the forestry-industry complex will facilitated industry advancement and intensify competition in business. Unifying all “sales” tenders will give the same favourable effect, in our opinion. A transparent and efficient tendering procedure in the electronic form and at the sites from the national list, operating in public procurement, will enable attracting a wider range of investors in the industry”.

“For sale” tenders, including tenders for granting forest plots for use, are now regulated by enormous number of regulations (the Land Code, the Forestry Code, the laws on privatization, bankruptcy, enforcement proceedings etc.) As a result, each type of such tenders has a separate information support procedure, separate requirements to drawing-up applications, different ground for accepting and rejecting bids, different timeline and procedures for concluding contracts based on the tendering results. In many cases the electronic tender procedure is not provided for, or there are no clear and unified requirements for the operators of electronic sites.