Over 20 billion of investments to be brought to Tatarstan mono-towns
Dmitry Medvedev assigned status of Priority Social and Economic Development Area to Chistopol, Zelenodolsk and Nizhnekamsk
Tatarstan has had three PSEDAs more at once: Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev assigned this status to Zelenodolsk, Nizhnekamsk and Chistopol. The authorities hope to attract at least 53 companies with an overall volume of investments of more than 23 billion rubles to these three cities. In addition, PSEDAs are to create 7,000 new working places. Realnoe Vremya tells what factories will get the status of residents.
7,000 employees and 23 billion rubles
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed resolutions on creation of Priority Social and Economic Development Areas (PSEDA) in three single-industry towns of Tatarstan. In total, the three PSEDA can attract 23,6 billion rubles of investments and create thousands of working places, according to the Russian Government's message.
The government of Tatarstan has already signed skeleton agreements with the investors who expect to get resident status in the future. In case of Nizhnekamsk, we're talking about 15 projects. The city plans to create factories that produce big plastic packaging, pipe insulation and foamed polyethylene profiles, gratings, dry pastries with long-term storage, cable and wire products, ergonomic furniture, exhaust gas treatment systems, production and recycling of canned fish, etc. The Nizhnekamsk PSEDA is due to create 3,000 working places, while the volume of the estimated investments in it is equal to 7,5 billion rubles.
23 investors can enter the PSEDA in Chistopol, according to the government's message. Factories making healthy food, first-category bottled water, concrete blocks, telemedicine mobile X-ray complexes with satellite channels are going to appear there. The PSEDA also plans to attract petrochemical enterprises and a factory manufacturing protein concentrate from oil plants. By calculations of functionaries, the PSEDA in Chistopol is to create over 1,500 working places and attract over 8,5 billion rubles of investments.
The authorities also invited 15 companies to the third single-industry town, Zelenodolsk. A factory making 'modern competitive' deck equipment, agricultural machinery, car spare parts, greenhouse complexes, medicine, plastic goods, overalls and big household appliances are going to appear in the PSEDA.
''The creation of the Zelenodolsk PDA will enable to diversify the town's economy, reduce the dependence on major enterprises, increase the investment attractiveness of the town's territory, create 2,500 permanent working places, attract investments of more than 7,600 billion rubles,'' the government says in its message.
Deputy Minister of Economy of Tatarstan Nataliya Tarkayeva explained to Realnoe Vremya the logic of distribution of activities: ''Those who produce accurate measuring equipment can't become a resident of the PSEDA in Chistopol, those who are included in the production chain of the Military Defence Complex can't reside in Zelenodolsk because POZIS and the Gorky Zelenodolsk Factory are the major enterprises. Companies manufacturing rubber can't be located in Nizhnekamsk (Nizhnekamskneftekhim works here).''
Judging by the resolution, companies with a specific minimum volume of investments can be a candidate for the residency in PSEDA. It's different in each city. The lowest bar of investments in Zelenodolsk is 10 million rubles, in Nizhnekamsk – 15 million rubles, in Chistopol – 2,5 million rubles. What's more, there are requirements for residents to create permanent working places. 20 places in one company in the Nizhnekamsk and Zelenodolsk PSEDA and 10 places – in Chistopol.
One PSEDA per city
Tatarstan had only one Priority Development Area (PDA) until 25 December – in Naberezhnye Chelny, which was created in January 2016. Now it has 15 residents. Sergey Akulchev's Macarons, Kamsky Agricultural and Industrial Complex (belongs to Kama Bacon) that makes meat products, Zaryad factory that manufactures sports sticks opened by hockey player Danis Zaripov with his business partners, etc. 20 billion rubles were attracted to the Chelny PSEDA, over 3,600 working places were created.
The territory in Naberezhnye Chelny offers investors several tax concessions and other benefits: income tax for its residents was reduced to 5% in the first 5 years, property tax and customs duties are equal to 0%.
The regional authorities started to try to create industrial sites with a special regime in several cities of Tatarstan soon after the appearance of the Chelny PSEDA. Chistopol, Nizhnekamsk and Zelenodolsk sent their applications to get status of priority development areas in August this year. Zelenodolsk and Chistopol had more chance to get this status,'' Realnoe Vremya's experts noted. The Tatarstan ministry of economy hoped all three cities could got the status but didn't make specific forecasts. Nevertheless, the Russian ministry of economic development approved the three applications of Tatarstan.
The topicality of creation of PSEDAs rose after the moratorium on the creation of special economic zones (SEZ) – last year, the government unexpectedly claimed the majority of SEZ that were created were ineffective and investments in them were paid back bad. It should be reminded, Tatarstan has two SEZ – Alabuga and Innopolis.
Early this year, Deputy Chairman of Vnecheconombank and member of the supervisory council of the Monotown Development Fund Irina Makiyeva advised Tatarstan President to send applications of all mono-towns, which the republic has 7 (Yelabuga, Kamskiye Polyany and Mendeleyevsk), to create PSEDAs. According to the criteria of the Russian government, Zelenodolsk and Naberezhnye Chelny refer to more mono-profiled cities with a more complicated social and economic state, while Nizhnekamsk – to cities with a stable situation.