Shannon airport is expected to benefit from a five billion rouble (£580 million) tax free economic zone now being developed on the fringe of Sheremetyevo, Moscow's international airport.
Details of the project were outlined yesterday at a conference held at Shannon and attended by Russian politicians and businessmen together with representatives of American and Irish banking and business and senior Shannon officials.
Mr Brendan O'Regan, the former chairman of the Shannon Airport Development Company, welcomed the project. He spoke of his experience in setting up the world's first customs free industrial zone 40 years ago.
Mr O'Regan spoke of the necessity for the formation of a state enterprise based on full delegation "to a properly constituted board working at local level". The board, he said, would act "as the buffer between the executive and bureaucracy without which an enterprise could not be run effectively."
Mr Nikolai Kozyrev, ambassador of the Russian Federation in Dublin, who formally opened the conference said that the establishment of Sherrizone, the free economic zone at Moscow airport, could have a favourable economic impact for Ireland. Mr Michael Guerin, former Shannon manager of Aer Rianta, who is, with others, part of a company acting on the Russian project's behalf in Europe and North America, said the project could result in increased air traffic and freight movement between Shannon and Moscow.
