Russia's new high-tech research and production hub outside Moscow will have its own police force and local administration, a Russian business daily said on Wednesday.
Vedomosti said unlike other Russian towns, which are headed by a mayor, Skolkovo will be ruled by a special foundation of the project's managers. The foundation will be headed by project coordinator and Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg.
"I would like the police force there to be a bit different to police in the rest of the country," Vedomosti quoted Vekselberg as saying.
An Interior Ministry official told Vedemosti that town police will not be controlled by local authorities, but directly subordinated to the Russian Interior Ministry.
The project will also have its own tax rules.
"The companies entitled to residential status will receive tax breaks on profits and property, and will get reduced rates on social expenditures' tax," Vedomosti quoted Vekselberg as saying.
He said the Russian Ministry of Economic Development is working on a bill to set up a legal order that will allow Skolkovo residents to concentrate on research without bureaucratic interference.
According to the Economics Ministry, the foundation will get indefinite tax benefits. Companies and residents will have tax benefits lasting for ten years, or until annual revenues reach 3 billion rubles. There will also be tax breaks on land, transport and VAT.
"Ten-year tax breaks are unprecedented," Vedomosti quoted the president of tax advisers' chamber, Dmitry Chernik as saying. "Usually they [companies] do something and ask for benefits for one year, but in this case, they've done nothing and are asking for ten-year breaks"
Some experts are dubious about the success of the ambitious Skolkovo project.
"It will be a kind of state corporation, a sinecure," Vedomosti quoted leader of the liberal Yabloko party Sergei Mitrokhin as saying.
"With the absence of local government, which is in fact unconstitutional, activity will be completely out of control"
Accountants and Business Advisers official Igor Nikolaev said investors cannot be sure of the outcome of the project.
"As in the case of state corporations, in two or three years people will start to question the project. Corporations can be converted, but what will be done with a whole town is unclear"
In March 2006, the Russian government approved a program to create technoparks to incorporate high-tech enterprises in the sectors of nano- and bio- information, and other kinds of technology, as well as scientific research organizations, educational institutions and other related ventures.
The new Skolkovo center's activities will focus on five priority spheres: energy, information technology, communication, biomedical research and nuclear technology.
MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti)
