Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism established the Japan-Russia Urban Environment Council on October 30th and held its first meeting. 82 companies and bodies including construction contractors, design firms, organizations and municipalities participate in the council, where issues of urban environment in Russia will be discussed by industry, academia, and government. Working groups will be organized in November to address problems Moscow is facing such as traffic conjunctions, lack of housing and deterioration of water and sewer. Japanese side intends to propose possible projects that advanced technologies of Japanese enterprises can be applied to and to urge Russian government to create its business environment favorable for Japanese companies.

The council will establish about ten working groups to cover six priority factors; construction materials and facilities, solid waste treatment, housing and environmentally friendly city, rehabilitation of sewer pipes, improvement of business environment.

Populations and resources are concentrated in big cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. Moscow, Russia’s capital, with as large a population as Tokyo of 12 million has suffered from issues including deterioration and capacity shortage of infrastructures. Construction of urban expressways, renewal of pipes, increasing the number of middle class houses and construction of waste treatment facility are its urgent tasks. (2013/10/31)