FSC on verge of deal to build in Russia
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 07/01) - A Yellowknife firm is on the verge of completing a multi-million dollar deal with the governor of a remote Russian region, possibly triggering an increase in business between Russian and the Canadian North over the next several years.
Ferguson Simek and Clark (FSC), an architectural and engineering firm, is negotiating a contract to build several buildings in Russia's remote Northern region of Chukotka.
Bob Maddigan, international project manager with FSC, said opportunities for Northern Canadian business in Russia have wavered over the last decade because of the country's tremendous political upheaval.
But at the moment, the opportunity is there, says Maddigan.
"Russia is open," he said..
If contract negotiations pan out, FSC is slated to build a day-care facility, a four classroom school and 10 to 15 houses in the communities of Anyusk and Uelkai. Anyusk is also the possible site for a water treatment facility. The capital of Chukotka, Anadyn, is slated to get a new airport hangar, a 22-room hotel and a single pad arena with a completion date in December of this year.
Negotiations are ongoing and no numbers were available, but the contract is expected to range in the millions. Maddigan said if the contract goes through, other Yellowknife businesses could get a chance at getting their fingers into the Russian pie.
"We intend to spread the work," he said. "If it increases we will bring other firms into the mix."
Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighem said FSC's venture adds to the city's economic diversification and promotes Yellowknife's profile abroad as a centre for Northern technology.
"I think it's excellent we can share our technical expertise with the circumpolar world," said Van Tighem.
"It establishes us as a centre for technical expertise that is useful around the globe and brings people here to seek it out and keeps people employed doing it."
Chukotka sits across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
Its recently elected governor, multi-millionarie Roman Abramovich, wants to improve the living conditions of the region's residents.
Abromovich visited Yellowknife and was impressed with what he saw. FSC has been working with Abromovich since the summer of 2000, when they built a house for him in the region.
