Russian-French Joint Venture National Ropeways will be the designer and supplier of ropeways for Elbrus All-Season Tourist and Recreational Complex in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic. A respective framework agreement was signed today, on May 25, at the booth of the French Republic within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, SPIEF 2018.

In addition to National Ropeways LLC, the parties of the tripartite agreement are Joint-Stock Company Northern Caucasus Resorts, the management company of the North Caucasus tourism cluster that includes Elbrus ATRC, and also French POMA S.A.S. It will provide technical and consulting assistance to the joint venture in design and survey, supply of necessary equipment and installation supervision.

At the first stage, National Ropeways LLC shall design three passenger lifts of Elbrus resort: chair ropeway with 4-seater chairs, gondola ropeway with 10-seater gondolas and a pendulum type ropeway. 10 pistes of all difficulty categories of about 11.4 km long shall also be designed. The cost of ropeways, pistes and related infrastructure facilities design is estimated at approximately RUB 190 million, the cost of equipment of ropeways — RUB 2.1 billion.

‘The double-coned peak Elbrus, the outlines of which are familiar to every Russian, is the national pride of our country. It is therefore extremely symbolic, that it was here where the first ski lifts, designed and built by Russian-French Joint Venture National Ropeways, including with the use of components produced in our country,’ Odes Baysultanov, First Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for North Caucasus Affairs - Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC NCR, said following the results of signing. ‘According to the work plan of the joint venture, in 2018-2019, the level of localization shall be of about 5%; in 2021, it shall increase to 15% and will further gradually increase, so that in the future, we could reach the highest ropeway components production localization level in Russia. So, exactly the Elbrus vicinity region, where, one can say, Russian Alpine skiing was born, will be the place for the history of domestic ropeways production industry to begin,’ he concluded.

According to the Director General of JSC NCR Khasan Timizhev, the managing company of the North Caucasus tourism cluster has successful experience in cooperation with French partners POMA S.A.S. within ski infrastructure development in Elbrus ATRC. ‘Due to modern technological and industrial solutions by POMA S.A.S., we managed to build a gondola ropeway in Elbrus ATRC up to an all-time height of 3847 meters, which is the highest not only in Russia but also in Europe’" he said. ‘And I am very grateful to our colleagues from France for their openness to cooperation in ropeway production that will result in ski lifts to appear in the Russian resort under Russian brand,’ Khasan Timizhev stressed.

‘I am sincerely proud that the signing of the first ever contract of the Russian-French joint venture took place exactly at the site of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in which the French Republic participates as a partner country. Our cooperation within National Ropeways LLC confirms the focus of Russia and France on the development of multidisciplinary cooperation, including in the economy and the production sector,’ the President of the Board of Directors of POMA S.A.S. Jean Souchal said.