Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Mikhail Men, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2016 an action plan (Roadmap) for cooperation between the Russian Construction Ministry and Gazprom with the purpose of implementing the Innovative Development Strategy for the domestic construction sector and ensuring the efficiency of the Company's investment activities.

The document envisages a number of joint measures to be taken in 2016 with a view to, inter alia, deploy innovative solutions in Russia's construction sector.

Gazprom's experts will form part of the Expert Council under the Russian Construction Ministry and the Working Group for the adoption of building information modeling (BIM technology) practices in construction processes.

In addition, the parties intend to form a joint working group to establish new national and corporate construction standards and improve the existing ones. The working group will also take efforts to update the legislation governing the design of major town-forming enterprises.

On top of that, the parties plan to streamline the regulatory acts on legal relations concerning self-regulation in the construction sector.

“Gazprom has experience in delivering unique projects in Yamal, on the continental shelf, and in eastern Russia. The Company employs innovative solutions and technologies. Gazprom and the Russian Construction Ministry's cooperation on legal and regulatory control in the construction sector, particularly during the construction of large industrial facilities, will further improve the efficiency of the Company's investment activities,” said Alexey Miller.

“Following the instructions issued by Russia's President after the meeting of the State Council for Construction, the Ministry of Construction deals with pressing issues in the industry by, among other things, improving the pricing and technical regulation systems and creating an up-to-date regulatory base. We expect that Gazprom's participation in the process will give a new impetus to this work and spur the adoption of technologies aimed at reducing the cost of facilities' construction and operation,” said Mikhail Men.