World Bank : Simplifying Property Registration, Improving Public Service Delivery in Russia

Rosreestr has introduced a better storage system for documents that are received by their offices, and plans to build 8 centralized document archive facilities nationwide by 2019, with the first one to be built in Kaluga.

Within the framework of the Registration project, the FAO is also supporting the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, which is the new international standard for land governance, negotiated by all UN Member States and enforced by the Committee on Food Security in May 2012.

While the need for improvement varies significantly from one country to another, there is a general need for all countries to keep a focus on governance of tenure. In Russia, much progress has been achieved to date in improving the governance of tenure of land.

Transparency and the reduction of corruption are central to good governance. As such, Rosreestr data is freely available online: citizens can track the status of their applications at any time on the Rosreestr website. Another example of improved tenure security is the establishment of the central paper and digital archives, which are also accessible to the general public.

Civic participation is another important principle of good governance. Public councils have been set-up in each of Russia's oblasts to bring together Rosreestr staff, citizens, academia, the private sector, and civil society - to discuss what works well and what could be done better.

'This is the result of good policy and broad public participation, creation of efficient organizational structure, putting in place modern laws and simplified procedures, innovation, implementation of the biggest unified cadastre and registration IT system in the world, enormous efforts to build capacity to deliver better services and ensure monitoring of the progress,'says Rumyana Tonchovska, a Senior Land Administration Officer at the FAO.

Implementation of the Registration Project also serves to support the Russian Government's broader efforts to improve the country's position in the World Bank Group's Doing Business rating in the area of registration of rights to real estate. And it has helped raise public awareness of Rosreestr and its services.

Russia is now among the top countries in the world in terms of ease of real property registration, according to Doing Business. In the Doing Business Registering Property Index, Rosreestr moved up from 51 place in 2011 to 12 place in 2015, and to 8 place in the 2016 rating.

'We have seen in many countries that building a modern real property registration takes years to accomplish, and Russia has just done that,'according to Andras Horvai, World Bank Country Director for the Russian Federation. 'In fact, Russia is now among the top countries in the world in terms of the ease of real property registration, according to the World Bank's Doing Business report. The ranking is important, but only to the extent that it compares Russia and its efforts with all of other countries. Most important is that citizens and businessmen can now rely on a registration service that is fast and efficient.'