Vladivostok free port status worth over $1bn and 50 ,000 jobs, claims mayor

Igor Pushkarev, Mayor of Vladivostok

Vladivostok free port: If Vladivostok is granted free port status this summer, the Far Eastern port stands to gain over $1bn and 50,000 jobs, its mayor Igor Pushkarev told Ogonyok magazine this week. “By our preliminary – and very conservative – estimates, if the free port bill is ratified the city will lose RUB31bn [$580 million] over the  next ten years and gain about RUB97bn [$1.8 billion],” he predicted after President Putin urged officials to speed up work on the new free trade zone  bill. “The losses will be a natural consequence of the incentives that are to be introduced. But the general growth of the region, stimulated by the arrival of new companies, will more than make up for this…. According to our projections, free port status will help the city to create more than 50,000 new jobs during the first five years.”