Quiz: March 14, the Ministry of Economic Development of South Ossetia and the Russian airline "Your air centre" signed a cooperation agreement. It provides for creation an enterprise for small aircraft construction in the territory of South Ossetia. How do you assess the prospects of this agreement and its implementation?
Alexey Khabalov, Minister for Economic Development of South Ossetia:
This is a carefully thought out and quite a real project. The profitability of this project is that even in the first year it will cover 70% of its value and the next year the project will bring profit.
If all goes according to the plan, the first manufactured airplanes will take part in a parade in the Day of Republic on September 20, 2012. Russian investors are willing to buy our airplanes; the rest of the aircraft will meet the needs of the economy of South Ossetia. Aircraft constructed in our Republic will be in demand by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Health, etc. It means tens and hundreds saved lives in the future. Such production has not the analogue even in the North Caucasus. The airplanes will have the symbol "Made in South Ossetia." This project will provide dozens of new jobs and economic benefits, increase of the international prestige. And what is the most important thing-we`ll have our own small civilian aircraft.
Gennady Kokoev, MP of South Ossetia: I have definitely assessed the signing of this agreement as the positive. The prospects of its implementation are quite good. This type of production has a wide outlet. Not only that production of this enterprise will provide a trade area in the territory of South Ossetia, it will also reach the market entry of the Russian Federation. Commercially this event is quite safe for South Ossetia; the Republic will be able to obtain the high-tech assembly plant, new jobs and revenue to the state budget. Even if it is not the key production, I believe that we need to focus our production on the assembly plants. The agreement should be assessed only positively. Small aircraft is in demand in a small state and performs absolutely all functions to support the sick, delivering cargo to the remote areas of the Republic. Alaska, Western Canada, and other countries have rich experience in using the small aircraft. This is the international experience and it should be supported and developed. I hope that there will be other examples of such cooperation. Taking into account all these facts, I am surprised at skepticism of some our experts about this issue. I should remind you that in the 30s - 40s in Stalinir was functioning a flying club, which trained the high level pilots. And in the 70 - 80 years in Tskhinval at the Tbilisi aircraft factory branch, named after Dimitrov, the pylons for the Su-25 were being manufactured. Yes, the technology, certainly, has changed. Over the past 20 years there has been a major breakthrough in the technology of constructing the small capacity aircraft. These technologies are available to be developed, easy to be implemented and relatively cheap. So there is nothing impossible and daunting in this project. Moreover, I can see a return to the traditional occupation of our people.
Inal Ostaev, the first class pilot-engineer of the civil aviation:
This agreement provides impetus for the development of aviation in South Ossetia. The necessary investments are available for us, and we can master production of the aircraft. The components will be delivered to South Ossetia and will be assembled here. Then the test flights will take place and the plane will be put into implementation. We will be able to meet the needs of South Ossetia in civil aviation, and the rest will be exported. Planes of the civil aviation are in a great demand; for example, the planes of the airline "Your air centre" meet with a ready market. I can assess this agreement as very positive, because it is a good start for attracting our youth to aviation. The flying club was functioning in South Ossetia before the Great Patriotic War; a lot of its graduates became the famous pilots. We are going to restore the flying club, to restore our aircraft traditions for South Ossetia to become the aviation republic. We have a lot of young people who want to learn the sky, but they had not the opportunities. We have already started the recruitment of young people, including the technical faculty of our university. Yesterday we visited the cadet school with the CEO of the airline "Your air centre", and we have selected from the graduation class six boys and two girls to be sent to aviation school in Russia. In three years the Republic will have its own qualified pilots.
