Today, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Aquaphor International OÜ, Narva City Government, Narva-Jõesuu City Government and Ida-Viru County Industrial Areas Development Foundation will sign a memorandum of understanding on the construction of a large fully-robotised water purification system production plant in Narva by 2025. The size of the investment is 200 million euros and it will create around 700 new jobs in the region.
Andres Sutt, the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, said that the biggest plant in the group will contribute significantly to the economic environment of the region, which will also have a broad socioeconomic impact. “It’s very important that a production and service sector independent on the oil shale sector is developed in Ida-Viru County, which supports the objectives of our environmental policy and the green transition, makes a significant contribution to attracting foreign investments to the region, promotes new entrepreneurship and increases business activity,” said Sutt. “This will certainly not be the last investment with a potential to generate billions and I look into the future of Ida-Viru County with optimism.”
According to Joseph L Shmidt, Member of the Management Board of Aquaphor International OÜ, Aquaphor will start piloting new environmentally friendly water purification filters for use in households and businesses this summer: “In March 2022, we will already launch the small-scale production of new generation filters in a plant of 11,000 m², the construction of which has started in Narva by now. We’re planning to build and launch the new generation filter plant at full capacity within three years of today. The most probable location of this plant would be in Ida-Viru County, if all of the parties make their contributions specified in the memorandum of understanding.”
According to Teet Kuusmik, Member of the Board of the Ida-Viru County Industrial Areas Development Foundation (IVIA), the public sector’s contribution to the planning process is extremely important for the implementation of the project of the large plant: “On the initiative of the IVIA, the detailed plan of stage 3 of the Narva Industrial Park is being prepared in the location of the future plant, and the activities of the industrial robotics training centre in Narva must also be launched in the next three years because of the plant’s needs.”
Katri Raik, Mayor of Narva, finds the close cooperation between the private sector and the local government extremely important. The entrepreneur expects the construction of new residential buildings to start in the city alongside the development of excellent medicine, and that it would also be possible to acquire education in English. The city is responsible for these initiatives.
Maksim Iljin, Mayor of Narva-Jõesuu, is of the opinion that this is a project whose impact on the development of the entire region is difficult to overestimate: “Narva-Jõesuu’s contribution in cooperation with the IVIA lies primarily in contributing to the development of the Olgina Airport will all means possible. As the employees and top specialists of the Aquaphor Group are likely to settle in the resort of Narva-Jõesuu, we must be ready to offer them modern and comfortable living conditions.”
According to forecasts, the new water purification factory will be built in the Narva Industrial Park by 2025. The prerequisite for this is the preparation and adoption of the stage 3 detailed plan of the Narva Industrial Park, the design of the production building and the issue of a building permit by the end of Q2 2023. The size of the plant will be ca 110,000 m² and it will start producing automated and robotised water purification systems.
