(SINGAPORE) A smaller version of Singapore may surface on the borders of Siberia, near the geographic centre of the Asian landmass, if a Russian state planner has his way.

A multi-billion dollar 'mini Singapore' set up in the special economic zone of Katun is being suggested by Andrey Alpatov, who recently led a Russian team on a visit here to study Singapore's tourist industry.

Professor Alpatov, who is deputy head of the Russian Federal Agency for Management of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), has already worked out the sums and tested it on potential investors in Singapore who seem to like it.

'The people we talked to seem interested,' Prof Alpatov told The Business Times in an interview at the end of his visit. They include the likes of CapitaLand, Wing Tai, City Developments, Sentosa Leisure Group, the Ascott group and the Haw Par group.

The Russian delegation made a pitch to these companies. They also met officials of the Singapore Tourism Board and Urban Redevelopment Authority.

'Making another Singapore - it seems to us very much possible,' he said. 'And for that, we are talking US$10 billion to US$20 billion.'

The Singapore government, keen on economic cooperation with Russia and already playing an advisory role in two of the country's industrial SEZs, would have nodded in favour of the mini-Singapore project.

Prof Alpatov, who was hosted by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, said the project would showcase some of Singapore's most attractive features and help sell the country to tourists.

'A mini Singapore will help create attractive tourist zones (in Russia's SEZs),' Prof Alpatov said. 'It would have all the symbols - all the icons of Singapore would be present, the Merlion, Marina Bay - and from our point of view, help to promote Singapore as a tourist destination.'

Russia has laid the groundwork for seven tourist-recreational SEZs in an attempt to broaden the country's economic base and meet the needs of a growing affluent class - and the Katun SEZ in the Altai Territory in southern Russia is earmarked for the mini-Singapore project.

'It's in the outer region, a unique place near Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China,' Prof Alpatov said.

The Katun SEZ is located in a land area of 3,200 hectares, the biggest of the seven tourist-recreational SEZs. Projects for hotel complexes, cultural and entertainment, health and sports, catering and other services are being lined up.

While Russia wants to tap different country-experience for the tourist-recreational SEZs, Prof Alpatov said it is still keen on Singapore's involvement in the other six SEZs. These are in the Republic of Altai, Irkutsk Region, Republic of Buryatia, Krasnodar Territory, Stavropol Territory and Kaliningrad Region.

The tourist-recreational SEZs require US$15 billion to take off, a third of which is expected to come from private investors. The Russian government has already contributed US$2 billion to start setting up the infrastructure.

'We're aiming to finish the master-planning for the zones by the end of this year,' Prof Alpatov said. 'Next year, we will prepare the land for tender. We expect the Singapore parties to come back to us before the year ends. It would be very useful if we could get 10 to 15 companies.'

To raise money from the private sector, Russia will persuade investors from various countries to set up investment funds for each of the SEZs, following the success of a one billion euro (S$2 billion) hotel fund set up with money from Austrian investors. A similar one could be set up in Singapore, says Prof Alpatov.

But money was not the primary goal of Prof Alpatov's visit. 'Russia has plenty of money now,' he said. Russia is more keen to learn from Singapore's experience in the tourist business, including training.

'We're (also) very interested in Singapore's experience in masterplanning and design,' he said. 'We like the Sentosa model and we like to create something like Sentosa for tourists and we are really interested in the concept of the integrated resorts because we have a similar idea.'

Photo: Yen Meng Jiin