Recently the Primorye local media reported that he was giving special attention to the employment of Primorye workers in the bridge building, and was particularly keen that locals should meet the demand for skilled blue-collar personnel, including steeplejacks.

He is also lobbying contractors to purchase as much materials locally as possible from cement to steel.

Aware that the Kremlin is keep a close eye on him he has been extremely active in promoting the work for the summit, accompanies President Dmitry Medvedev to last November’s APEC summit in Lima, Peru and has welcomed several high-ranking foreign delegations to the Far East. Darkin has been a leading delegate to the 2007 and 2008 Russia Singapore Business Forums held in the island state and knows what it will take to turn Vladivostok into a MICE travel destination.

Darkin has recently expressed dissatisfaction with Vladivostok preparations. According to him the speed of the preparation should be increased, and Rosstroi (the Federal agency of construction, housing and housing services of the Russian Federation) and the Ministry of Regional
Development should work more efficiently in that direction.

The countdown is on for Vladivostok City to upgrade its infrastructure, highways, hotels, conference facilities and civic amenities in time to be showcased to the presidents of the 21 member countries of APEC.

The Federal budget has already remitted 7.6 bn rubles for the construction of the main bridge from the city to Russkiy Island in the Golden Horn Bay where the summit will be held.

Igor Zubarev, General Director of the state company Vladivostok which is coordinating the construction works for the massive project confirmed “This money is in our accounts. Originally, 9 billion rubles were planned to be allocated in 2009 for the bridge construction,” he said adding that the bridge construction was behind schedule and that contractors planned to catch up by August or September. The bridge is over three kilometers long and will link Nazimov Peninsula (the Patroclus Bay) with Novosilskiy Cape (the Russkiy Island).

According to Zubarov the great amount of spadework, such as construction of the necessary facilities and providing with off-site energy supply, has already been carried out

During the summer work is also expected to start on the main buildings on the island starting with workers accommodation for 6,000 people as well as work in the Pospelova Cape, according to Victor Myasnik, the Deputy Director of “Far Eastern Directorate of Rosstroi.” “We also intend to start works on the erection of the Far Eastern Federal University,” he said. The FEFU will be established on the basis of many of the buildings required for the summit.

Regional officials are planning to offer vacation employment to students in Vladivostok. Vladimir Popov, the Head of the Far Eastern District Headquarters said he was ready to bring about 200 students to the construction sites. “The students’ construction teams’ movement is reviving in Primorye. It is not a problem to form 10 teams with 20 students in each. We are also ready to give them vocational training as builders.”

The U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Eric Ruben, on his first visit to Vladivostok, has said “In my opinion, APEC Summit is a good chance both for Primorye and the Far Eastern District development. The representatives of many countries will attend the Summit and Primorye will have a good chance to prove its advantages. Hosting such a forum is a powerful incentive to the prospective development.”

A more concrete picture of the scale of the development has emerged in recent weeks. A business centre will be situated at the Ayaks Bay of the Russky Island, a 7,000 seat congress hall, a meeting venue suitable for heads of states to meet and also press centre to handle 3,500 journalists are among the structures to be built.

A new highway from the airport along the peninsula and Sedanka to the Nazimov Peninsula end of the bridge to Russkiy Island was also approved to be built at the expense of the federal budget.

The Airport is to have a new terminal and be generally upgraded but the plans have not yet been prepared according to the local Vladivostok Times.

Clearly, with a $ 10 bn budget and only four years to complete all preparations the pressure is unrelenting.