Civil construction

The year of 2001 in the civil construction sector of the city was marked by the preparation to the 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg. The construction works for 2002 were financed from the federal budget. In the framewok of the implementation of the Target Program "Preservation and Development of the Historical Centre of St. Petersburg" 315 mln Roubles were utilized.

The logical continuation of the federal target program is the project "Reconstruction of the Centre of St. Petersburg" implemented by the City Administration with the attracted World Bank loan (31 mln USD).

All-in-all, 1 bln 415 mln Roubles from the municipal budget were used as capital investments in 2001.

In the framework of the municipal order, objects of social purposes were erected: schools, polyclinics and other buildings. The list of the major buildings commissioned or reconstructed by the City Administration in 2001 contains the following:

objects of social purposes (comprehensive and musical schools, Centre for social services to the citizens and others);

objects of housing construction (dwelling houses);

objects of culture (Students' Theatre of the Academy of Theatrical Art, Musical Comedy Theatre, facades of the Academy of Fine Arts, of St. Petersburg Conservatoire, of Maria Magdalena Hospital, the foyer of Mussorgsky Opera House, the boiler-house of Peter-and-Paul Fortress, the hothouse and engineering network of the Botanical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences etc.).

All-in-all, 6 objects of social purposes were put in operation in 2001.

The City Administration commissioned construction and reconstruction of dwelling houses with the total space of over 20 000 sq.m., including 10 800 sq.m. allocated to the city dwellers enjoying social privileges.

In general, in 2001 the civil construction sector of St. Petersburg secured commissioning of 1 mln 118 thousand sq.m. of living space, 3% more than in 2000.

The biggest volume of the new housing construction in 2001 was implemented in Primorsky, Nevsky, Vyborgsky, Kalininsky and Kirovsky Districts. Besides, 92 objects of various purposes were put in operation out of investors' funds.

Continued are the activities under the Program on Federal Housing Certificates.

Dynamics of the Housing Construction (by the year)

Year	1997	1998	1999	2000	2002	8 months of 2002
Thousard sq.m.	756	849	1073	1081	1118	755,5

Thrice over the last year there were held open auctions for the right of conclusion of provisional investment contracts, with over 30 real estate objects submitted. As a result, the investors transferred more than 4.5 mln USD to the city budget.

One of the measures to improve the investment attractiveness of the city is promotion of the development perspectives of the administrative districts of St. Petersburg. In 2001 the Exhibition Hall of Investment Projects, in a joint effort with the territorial boards, organized more than 40 events involving public discussions of the development perspectives of the administrative districts.

In the framework of improvement of the investment attractiveness of the City and provision of investors with useful and true information on the development of the territory and real estate in St. Petersburg, work is being carried out to create the Unified Information and Reference System "Development of the Territory and Real Estate in St. Petersburg" (EIST) at the Internet-server of the City Administration:

http://www.statedevelopment.spb.ru/.

This information system is intended for supplying the potential builders and investors with the basic data on the territory of the city and the investment processes under implementation. This data is essential while making preliminary estimates of the investment attractiveness of particular land lots, or searching for lots or real estate objects with specific characteristics.

The major objectives of the City Administration are defined in the Strategic Plan of St. Petersburg, approved at the municipal and federal level and supported by target programs for capital investments:

• Further development of housing construction, provision of the maximum commissioning of dwelling houses and other socially important objects, with wide utilization of off-budget investments and other reserves and possibilities.
• Implementation of federal and regional programs for social and economic development of the city.
• Creation of environment for favourable investment climate. Attraction of off-budget funds, credit resources and private investments into the investment-construction process.
• Support to the investment activity. Support to territory development and reconstruction trends that facilitate the improvement of the investment capacity of the city and development of real estate.
• Reduction of the incomplete construction volume and of construction costs through tendering and contract auctions.
• Speeding-up of the technological progress in the sector, elaboration of the normative documents related to civil construction, provision of resources and power supply, improvement of quality of the products.
• Reorganization, reconstruction and re-equipment of the civil construction basis, organization of production of high-performance and competitive construction materials and elements.

The programs above-listed make the basis for positive dynamics of the housing construction. The improvement of the efficiency of the capital development will be implemented under the programs that are socially significant and promising from the point of view of further development of the city.