Russian Duma adopts law to create special economic zones in occupied Ukraine

Moscow, Jun 20 (EFE).- The Duma, or Lower House of the Russian parliament, on Tuesday approved a law to create a special economic zone in Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, which Moscow has annexed in the ongoing Ukraine war.

The special economic zone seeks to give an impetus to business activities to restore the economy of the war-torn regions.

The free economic zone scheme will include creation of special tax regimes, preferential customs regimes, urban planning and land use for the implementation of projects by investors, and will be operational until 2050.

“This is a fairly long period of time required to restore the economy of these regions with the attraction of investments,” said Maxim Topilin, Chairman of the Duma Economic Policy Committee, according to a statement released on its news portal.

Deputy Chairwoman of the Duma Committee for Economic Policy, Nadezhda Shkolkina said the law was welcomed by regional administrations, as well as by investors to start their projects in these territories as soon as possible.

“By creating free economic zones in new territories, we are creating more comfortable conditions for the development of the new regions of the Russian Federation, mainly in terms of long-term investments in its economy,” she said, as quoted by the official TASS news agency. EFE

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