OREANDA-NEWS. December 22, 2008. Altay region will select a developer of Sibirskaya Moneta gaming zone area in January 2009. The Vice Governor of the region Mihail Schetinin said.

“We have announced a tender on development a design project of Sibirskaya Moneta. The tender will take place in January, and we will select a developing organization then,” said Schetinin. The financial sources for the project development are not specified.

According to Schetinin, at present the regional administration is having negotiations with a number of potential investors in the gaming zone. “I had insiders of Novosibirsk gaming business here, and they announced their wish to take part in the implementation of the project. I also had a representative of Kuzbass ready to invest 1 billion rubles in the development of Sibirskaya Moneta,” remarked Schetinin.
However, the Vice Governor refused to call the names of potential investors, referring to unavailability of exact agreements. “The regional administration believes that first an agreement shall be signed, then a design project shall be developed together, and then the works shall be started. Once the “first sprouts" are there, we are ready to hand the zone over to the business community to manage. But not at the initial stage because it is the kind of business that the state must continuously monitor,” he stated.

As reported before, in 2007 Casino Austria made public its intentions to get engaged in the investment project on building the gaming zone in Altay. Altay region planned to sign the agreement with the Austrian investor in April 2008. Nevertheless the Austrian group has not manifested any interest in Altay since then. Several months ago the regional authorities also announced a strategic interest from an investor of the United Arab Emirates, which also proved to be a myth.