SOCHI IS TO HOST THE 2014 WINTER OLYMPICS

On 4 July 2007, the holiday resort of Sochi was declared the official capital of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Even earlier, the Russian Government had adopted a Federal Targeted Programme “Development of the City of Sochi as a Mountain and Climatic Health Resort”. The total cost of the Programme is over 9 billion euros, of which 3.5 billion will come from off-budget sources. Still earlier, 18 months ago, theKrasnodar Territory adopted a Master Plan for development of the Sochi holiday resort. The coordinated efforts of all levels of government have given a boost to the economy and attracted an inflow of funding: the volume of foreign investments in Sochi increased tenfold to 55 million euros during 2006. Total investments in Sochi’s development increased from 400 to 560 million euros within a year.

The Programme envisages construction of more than 250 facilities, including fifteen new sports centres forming two clusters, one on the coast and the other in the mountains.

The former will centre around the Olympic Park, which will have an Olympic stadium and a square for award ceremonies, the Olympic Village, the main media centre, hotels and five ice sports arenas.

The Sochi-2014 mountain cluster, the most modern ski resort in the world, will be created at Krasnaya Polyana. It will comprise biathlon and ski complexes (20,000 and 16,000 places respectively),a bobsleigh track (11,000 places), a mountain Olympic Village (2000 places), ski jumps, a snowboard park and a freestyle centre. All the facilities at the mountain cluster are financed by private investors.

Sberbank Contracts Visa to Create New Services for Sochi-2014

General partners of the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014 - Russian Sberbank and Visa International Company signed an agreement on cooperation and establishment of new financial services for participants and guests of Sochi Olympic Games.

By 2014 there will be prepared a special financial product, probably in a mobile form. Any financial transaction will be made by means of a mobile phone, through internet banking and payment terminal.

 Sberank also plans to prepare the target products for different categories of Olympic clients ranging from athletes and ending with the tourists. 

"We are segmenting customers - athletes, coaches, team organizers. They come (to play) with large sums of money, they have a lot to buy. They face restrictions on cashing in, they have large financing needs and the need to interact with the trading infrastructure. Now  there is no centralized service orientation. We divide customers into segments that will map the needs and create products for different target groups" -

the head of Sberbank German Gref stated. 

It is the first-ever global Olympic sponsorship partner, who for four years prior to the game signed an agreement with a local bank, regulating in detail all further relations to develop  financial infrastructure.

Nat Lawyer
Unel Legal Consulting
www.unellegal.com