Russia mulls special law on Far East development

Russia might need to draft a special law for the development of its Far East region, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday."I am a supporter of such a law in case we could saturate it with particular clauses, if it will actually be a driver for the development of the Far Eastern territories," Medvedev told State Duma, the lower house of the parliament, in his annual report on the government's work.The aim of such a law must be to make the Russian Far East a place where people would like to live and work, he said."(The Far East) must become a choice for talented and enterprising people," Medvedev said, adding that the tax codes should be edited to ease the financial burden on Far Eastern projects.Medvedev also said that the government recently adopted a federal program for the development of the Far East and Trans-Baikal regions.The infrastructure upgrade in Vladivostok for hosting last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit should be used for future projects, he added."One should not moan but work, and much has already been done," Medvedev said.He said the government planned to spend over 580 billion rubles (18.7 billion U.S. dollars) on Far East development by 2018.