a rude response to sanctions. and president asad is set to address the syrian nation as the opposition claims the government's crackdown there are continuing they're calling for the u.n. to intervene but many critics say outside of. democracy. up next we ask the man responsible for turning north caucasus into a top holiday destination how he's going to do it so stay with us for spotlight. i hope today my guest on the program is saying. that the russian the service has always been a very special guests the world famous resort. and. this

was shaken by numerous ethnic conflicts and. just give the. people who say they turned. into one of the best results from isn't really what's to be done and with bad spirit prove that the. poor are asking the. north caucasus resort to a company that's in charge of the tourist aleksei. the northern caucasus result is a large government backs project intended to turn russia's troubled but beautiful region into a tourist paradise it's estimated the project will cost about fifteen billion dollars and as the government has only two billion foreign investment is more than welcome. each newly built treated as a special economic zone with friendlier taxation a major french bank was the first foreign company to take advantage of it and many

others on the vestment possibilities to. welcome to spotlight. is a legendary place we all know that. of russia and in russia itself and is largely associated with the war on terrorism and. what is being done to change this perception. in general the entire project's objective is to change this perception of the caucasus. i shall not make it a secret that this is the reason why the project as supported by the government task is to use all the best and most valuable the caucasus has taught for us and is a machine that is its very creational resources its mountains is beautiful and diverse nature as well as the traditional hospitality oh it's a decision is people's. believe and this opinion is shared by the experts we

invited to assess the potential of this area. that the mountains in north caucasus go well give us world class holiday resorts in five caucasus regions and even in six because one of the resorts where building is located both in the republic of other gear and the cross and our region. this is why i think that we do have all the required resources to overcome this negative perception you were talking about was listed that there was and we will do that for the implementation of our project and with the support of the government of the russian federation. well let's hear more about the north caucuses and its tourist potential ever reported by spotlights healy and they did neither. the landscape has been inspiration for generations of russian poets artists to the north caucasus in search of news it's also what police pleasures wike ski resorts it's because of course is like this that north caucasus

it's called the russians it's a land the home to you built in facilities and the plan is to further expand the result. then there's more to healing quality's work through shaded. by the russian nobility the red dozens of mineral water springs some of it drinking some food you've been eating it's barbadian. some say the air itself is healing in the north caucasus the region is legendary for the long lives of its people who say the secrets of the air they breathe and the truth of rural life for those looking for more adventure mount our bruce the highest peak in europe stands ready to because with all its riches the north caucasus however remains a diamond in the rough waiting for investment to turn the place was to potential into what to. destination. it does have potential

and it will come back to it later years we've been hearing endless news stories referring to military action in the caucasus it serious attack in the caucasus counterterrorism in the caucasus what exactly are you doing to change that perception. that's a lot of projects aim is to develop alpine ski resorts in north caucasus and its implementation is a complex task. first of all it will require massive investment into the development of the regions infrastructure. of the venues where work and there are currently largely underdeveloped in terms of infrastructure. and then you that are there for the governments fund to go and towards all projects will be used to finance the construction of roads gas pipelines. power and water supplies. in other words all of the services required to set up world class resorts with international hotel networks spa resort and so on.

we are aware of the issue of security. but this is one of the priorities we have focused on. so we plan to put together a comprehensive security concept for the alpine ski resort where developing. the security concept will surely have to be revised and approved by all relevant law enforcement agencies. is it true that some foreign companies i think from israel are friends or drafting in security council for you you know we have had meetings. with the french. and the representatives of some israeli companies that specialize in security services. in terms of security is frail faces similar challenges in developing its tourism industry as north caucasus. so far we haven't gone further than consultations but i think next year we will begin our

corporation in the lab raising this comprehensive security system. but. i like the term proposed by a french partners they suggested colinet the security cap this refers to an all around approach which covers all of the security related issues starting from the tourists arrival at the airport to their safe state and safe return home. this also fits in the old. once you enter russia you are kept that is watched by security services. ok you said it's about helping ski resorts but north caucasus has more to offer than just mountains were skiing it has access to the sea to seize in fact. you are right. and i will tell you that the government. ministries are now considering a draft decree when in force will empower us to expand our area of activity and develop another vast territory i mean the caspian sea side area. it offers

a lot in terms of system development. development of hotels spa resorts sea front residential and administrative areas. but one of the locations we're looking at is durban and one of dagestan oldest town. we know that it is going to turn five thousand years old in the near future. this is a new project and in terms of a scale amount of investment and the number of jobs it will create it is comparable with our core project to develop resorts. spending indication in north caucasus has always been associated with the black sea there have been no resorts in the caspian and probably that's we reason maybe we don't need them let's not. actually this is not quite true. historically the areas i just mentioned have always had beaches full of people. we have even seen

some old photos dating back to the soviet times. crowded beaches. maybe they were less popular than the black sea resource we have historically featured traditional publications. such as between the sochi and others. but nonetheless the residents of neighboring regions a bowl is favored them. this is why i think that with proper funding we will be able to tap into that potential. but what about the costs how much will it take to set up a tourist in the caspian from scratch with air force hotels etc are we talking billions. billions of rubles and billions of dollars. i can tell you that the money from the state budget here marked for the development

of this seaside area for the development of the infrastructure i expected to total some forty billion rubles but you're not as you can force of course we will seek to multiply these injections four to six times by attracting private investors. and i think the project is going to come to reality through a private state partnership. so the government put up one fifth of the money right while the rest come from russian and foreign investors but we do not have any restrictions regarding their origin but our investors are interested. we have beds both from foreign and russian investors. partner in the sea side project as the company called. the same is true for the ski resorts we have some russian companies who have signed a memorandum of understanding with us. and there are some western asian investors who have signed similar memoranda for contracts well several billion u.s. dollars. do you provide. an interesting question especially given the

complexity of the region. the guarantees are provided by the state and will amount to seventy percent of the investors' funds. does not save guard you from business missteps though russia will be only obliged to return you seventy percent of your funds in case of loss due to political risks says the c.e.o. of the north caucasus with the spotlight will be back shortly after a break so. this is our time. to reclaim the american dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many we are one that won't we breed the we hope. to me the american dream is to live in peace and prosperity and freedom and

a government under socialism is not a government a free. man. you . have very motivated out cross the country who are activists who are willing to fight for what they think is right for themselves but in fact this forty four bridge and. we are counting. properly drowning and i think it's spread by it's cutting off heart. it's making real democracy. all but impossible. when an uncomfortable question leads to a grave accusation the world who is more xeno following. the president who isn't

supposed to hide anything. or it's someone asking him why do you make a secret out that when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different. when you get experiencing very serious problems off of the saakashvili government came to power in two thousand and three if you put it from a book that was when the problems began piling up. interviews were now off limits to our journalists they were often be set up and humiliated in public when the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger that we have been deprived of the only means of earning a living i have gone to the original sit all the papers. at them legalized the ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just a stage prop. welcome

back to spotlight i'm al gore and i have been just to remind you that my guest on the show today. of the north caucasus resorts. russian president dmitri of any french president sarkozy sent a joint declaration on the development of north caucuses and they do the same as this year later in some papers with companies why were the french chosen as enka partners in this project as you call them. indeed it is and the french state. is our own compartment. as for possible reasons well i think we could refer to our historical background you know we have found official papers dating back as far as the nineteenth seventy's where france request to the soviet union to grant a concession over the territory of the north caucasus mountains for the purposes of developing the area is good that you can go back in your research as far as the

invasion of russia by napoleon in eight hundred twelve. years it was a more peaceful initiative of france than that of eight hundred twelve. when studying these documents we're realize that france has had a longstanding interest and what's more important it has the proper competence some forty years ago they faced a similar task they had to set up their skin industry from scratch including the construction of resources and infrastructure in the mountains. so they have the expertise they know what needs to be changed in terms of flows they have a centralized system for the construction of such facilities that may be the reason they showed such interest unlike other countries which. are you more interested in their investments or their experience both by itself the reputation and the experience of the bank case that it provides a strong umbrella that will draw

a lot of investors and investment funds. also casted up or has a stake in company that. is the major ski resort operator that runs almost all french ski resorts but they have enormous expertise and they say that no russian company can offer for the time being. the new resorts are tracked for interests however the french experience is unique in the alps chris simple reason they have sufficient domestic demand and like austrian eataly who live in foreigner is france is more geared to their own holidaymakers they don't depend on foreigners which is reflected in their area hued so my question is why didn't you choose austria there skiing in this pattern would be more relevant for us. firstly foreign tourists are not our first priority target group. of course will not be able to compete of course chevelle or any other high top western brands. think we still have a lot of potential in terms of domestic demand. in particular. that some

forty percent of tourists will come from other republics of north caucasus and neighboring southern regions of russia. of course there will be a lot of tourists coming from other regions of russia from the c.i.s. countries as well. and as for foreign tourists i'm sure they will come to north caucasus. though most probably their flow will increase with time. but at the initial stage i don't expect their share to be larger than ten percent. according to is can be attracted by some exotic features for example there are people who travel as far as new zealand for skiing if you're expensive but maybe it's worth it russians can only be attracted by low prices as far as i know skiing anywhere in russia today will cost you up to two times more than what you would spend and then every austrian resort what are you going to do about that.

indeed it is one of the key challenges for our company and for us as the designers of the resorts concept that. was the deal it's what we need is to offer people good quality affordable prices. this would mean that you won't have to pay as much as a western resorts. but for that price you would still get almost the same standards of quality of service including accommodation at local hotels. this is why we need to cut construction costs and the coasts of services that will offer. in part we have to rely on the expertise of our french partners in terms of assuring high quality of service and successful operation of a network of resorts. this objective is going to be hard to achieve but i still

think it's a feasible one. realize that if prices are not significantly lower or less alone comparable to prices that measure all strain or french resorts we will lose out and tourists will not choose us. with i do not quite understand how you are going to bring down the prices. so you are a monopoly you have north caucuses all to yourself and you going to develop tourism there there will be no competition and prices never decline unless there is competition. but in fact where monopolists in only one area the construction of infrastructure for these keen resorts. we do not seek to become the sole operator of these resorts. we only build the infrastructure . and this is how we spend the sixty billion rubles that the government has

invested into our company. our objective is to build roads gas pipelines power supplies and prepare the slopes and install ski lifts. but not buildings no commercial investors that's right competition comes into play here are preparing the ground for it yes we are creating the appropriate environment for investors private and institutional to build the facilities they want you to get your money there are you going to sell that land afterwards. suppose you have built the infrastructure they could just let you go after that. as far as revenues go we are planning to have a positive cash flow. they come in a highly profitable venture is not our key goal. none the less you have to get their money back how you do that will end. things yes but also from operating the

scale if. it is explored they have quite a long payoff period. that i believe will be cooperating on them with our french partners from new york creating this. yes that's our current plan ernst and young occur in little elop in the business model for all pray sions we will have a thorough thoughtout business strategy and i will be able to share more information with you once it's ready yeah i think scheme myself and so does my child so i am familiar with some of the problems skews face take moscow for example it has one decent slope and horribly other gauri the operators cannot turn it into generally good ski slope because they're not permitted to cut down three trees that they have been battling for the right to cut them down for several years now that's three trees in the caucuses you're going to have to cut down thousands of trees do you think you're going to be able to do that. and yes that is one of our main challenges. i can say that amendments were recently adopted to the law in special

economic zones such as the territory we're working on. the amendments dr specifically to help our project and this is the creation of a comfortable work environment on territories that are classified as kiri sorts. i can say that according to our political or plans only two percent of the territory but will be operating on is legally classified as a nation reserve. and of course we're going to do as much as possible to avoid going into the territory of nature reserves or national parks. which you would be cutting down trees yes of course otherwise we will not be able to build their oaths are based as. well you know if you story about chopping down centuries old trees in distrusting a unique and well balanced eco system. i think the relations between humans and nature should be balanced as well. as the example of

the world's leading resource in france italy and australia shows us. can operate in a unique eco system. and the resource industry does not have to destroy the environment. i believe that we will be able to strike that balance very closely cooperation with environmental organizations as we approach the final stage of preparing our master plan. i think this cooperation will only increase that i think we will try to get their approval for everything with. because this is famous for his hospitality and his cuisine however as you probably know his restaurants are not very popular in europe unlike greek spanish and italian ones that is. like that are you going to promote caucuses cuisine will you bring people over for tasting sessions what are you going to do to make foreigners

appreciate more than just the kiba. once again you have touched upon a whole range of. concept well in the next several months i think by april will complete our training plan and. we're going to need several thousand ski instructors rescue workers and guides. that's one area of professions that will be in high demand. as you rightly mentioned where you go internet employees for the catering industry. chefs waiters other qualified staff as well. in addition who will need a lot of hotel. of course on the book we're still undecided on whether we will train these people at some corporate university but at powell's toss a large scale training program that russian and foreign universities wants you know when you have. the would you go where also go into invite first trade chefs from

abroad for the sake of diversity. of course other than just coke asian cuisine is not go into play enough. but i think tourists in north caucasus should be able to enjoy a diverse and high quality food comes them that's a catch them thank you thank you thank you very much and just a reminder that my guest on the show today was alex a.s.t c.e.o. of the north caucasus resorts and the third for now from all of us here will be back with more comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on party and take care. now it's not about spilling blood. it's the war of the barricades from one side

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