OREANDA-NEWS. January 27, 2015. BALT-AUDIT-EXPERT, a member of the Energy Consulting group, has completed the development of the Programs of social and economic development until 2025 for four municipalities of Leningradskaya Region - Vistinsky rural settlement of Kingisepsky Region, Vinnitsky rural and Voznesensky urban settlement of Podporozhsky Region and Radogoschinsky rural settlement of Boksitogorsky Region. The programs were developed using unconventional approaches.

Over the last 10-15 years Vistinsky rural settlement has turned into a territory with one of the highest rates of investments into industrial and logistic assets in Leningradskaya Region, which is connected with the construction of the Ust' Luga commercial sea port terminals. Vistinsky rural settlement is a territory inhabited by the small-numbered Ingrian nation.

The other settlements are inhabited by the small-numbered Vepsian nation. These municipalities are similar in terms of the problems that they face. On the one hand, they have vast forest resources, many acres of agricultural land, a potential for tourism connected with annual ethnic cultural events and conditions for sports and outdoor activities. On the other hand, there is low economic activity of the population, lack of investments, critical condition of roads and a large amount of legal and organizational problems connected with the lease of forest reserves and the issues of property in agricultural land.

Leonid Ivanovsky, Director, Management Consulting Group, BALT-AUDIT-EXPERT: "An important feature of our methodological approach was a hybrid combination of traditional social and economic analysis and forecast methods and methods used for the analysis of the ethnographic and cultural and genetic aspects of the territory, including the analysis of the lifestyle, values, targets and cultural needs of indigenous peoples. The combination of these approaches was used for the development of strategic planning documents for the first time."

The programs were presented for public debates at the administrative authorities of the respective municipalities in December 2014. The participants of the debates agreed with the proposed descriptions of the goals and objectives of social and economic development and with the measures developed to achieve them. It was noted that the goals stated correspond to the vital everyday needs of the people living in the municipalities. The fact that the proposed measures, should they be realized, will have a positive effect on the quality of living in the settlements and provide new opportunities for the development of the traditional cultures of indigenous people, was recognized indisputable.