SPIEF-2016: Tatarstan at the top, friendship of Alibaba with Russian Post and bitumen for GE
On Tuesday, in the RT Cabinet of Ministers they discussed the results of the work of Tatarstan delegation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The correspondent of Realnoe Vremya attended the briefing and found out how the agreement between the Industrial Development Fund and the Investment and Venture Fund of the RT will help the regional export-oriented companies, as well as what areas for improvement Tatarstan has chosen after winning the first place in the ranking on the investment climate.
'If we hold the investments, then there will be economy growth'
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which was attended by the delegation from Tatarstan, gathered an impressive number of executives of major corporations and government representatives and, according to the Minister of Economy of Tatarstan Artyom Zdunov, it was the main advantage of the event. At the forum there was presented our stand with the largest projects of the Republic — for example, Innokam, capacities of Nizhnekamskneftekhim and TAIF-NK.
The key event of the forum, at least for the regions, was the presentation of the results of the national investment climate rating. This year Tatarstan has confirmed its leadership in the Russian Federation as the most investment-attractive region and takes the first position in the rating. The second and third positions are taken by Kaluga and Belgorod. According to Zdunov, despite the leadership, Tatarstan will continue to work on self-improvement.
'We always do fundamental conclusions on the results. According to the rating, Tatarstan is listed in many best practices to learn from us. But we look at it so that we need to consider what the growth reserves we have. There will be the organized work: at the instruction of the President we will hold a government sitting, where we will carefully consider all indicators, and they are more than 50. And then, of course, a year of work, but not necessarily in order to be in the rating… We will work hard to ensure that we are the leaders, because an investor votes with ruble, not the rating,' said the Minister of Economy of RT.
Some sort of competition between our Republic and other regions is sharpened by the fact that the second and third places are treading on our heels. For example, not long ago, Tatarstan turned to the experience of Kaluga, which now takes the second place. According to Artyom Zdunov, the main area of work for RT will be the creation of favourable environment – it is the paragraph 'A' of the rating.
The speaker also made a forecast on the economic situation in Tatarstan in 2016, which turned out to be quite optimistic.
'Last year we maintained our position on investments, and if we hold the investments, then there will be economy growth. This year the situation is more positive: there is a moderate growth. In particular, the gross regional product in comparison with the previous period of last year is 102% — it is growth. The same situation with the index of industrial production — 102.9%. Investment volume — 103.1%,' concluded Zdunov.
The figures in the form of asterisks and the support of entrepreneurship
Apart from the rating, at the last briefing they also discussed the meetings with the partners, which were attended by our delegation. For example, there were productive talks with the Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs. As Zdunov noted, this organization is fundamentally important for RT, because on the created territory of advancing socio-economic development the first resident was the Chinese high-tech company Haier. Moreover, almost every week the delegations of major companies come to us to look at this site.
Also, our delegation met with Russian governors to discuss how to expand the range and volume of financial support at the federal level.
'Of course, we need here a great justification, because, for example, in 2008 the amount of financial support for small and medium businesses increased several times. Now there are certain limitations, but judging by the applications from our entrepreneurs, we certainly need additional infusions. They are in the plans of stabilization of the economic situation, but they are still there in the form of asterisks, and our task is to turn those asterisks into figures,' said Zdunov.
Also, a lot of questions at the SPIEF-2016 was devoted to the development of entrepreneurship, and one of the principal events in this area was the lowering of the bar for the banks applying for the programme of preferential financing. At the recent meeting of the Committee for Ecology Artyom Zdunov already mentioned this programme: according to the speaker, it is one of the tools that can help Tatarstan market of agricultural machinery.
'I think that these loans are the most secured because the guarantee is up to 70% of collateral of the development corporation. In the current situation, these are very favoгrable conditions. You can obtain a loan from 50 million to 1 billion rubles, and if you use the work with 4 banks — up to 4 billion rubles. We already have four such major transactions with VTB Bank and, of course, we will continue to work with all banks, including the regional ones,' told Zdunov.
Lenta in Kazan and the promotion of Zelenodolsk products in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
The main challenge our Republic faced is the holding of the maximum amount of useful meetings and negotiations and the signing of several agreements with partners. The Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Almaz Khusainov told about them.
'One of the important meetings was held in the framework of the working lunch of the President of Tatarstan and Minister of Economy of Luxembourg: they discussed the issues of further cooperation. Also, with the Governor of the Altai Krai it was signed the plan of measures for the implementation of relations between the Altai Krai and the Republic of Tatarstan in 2016-2019,' said Khusainov. 'At a meeting with the governor of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug we discussed the promotion of products of Zelenodolsk plant named after Gorky.'
Also, at the meeting with General Electric Healthcare Russia/CIS Rustam Minnikhanov discussed the continuation of equipping of medical institutions with high-tech diagnostic equipment and the work on the design of medical centers in the country. Tatarstan delegation invited the company to cooperate in the field of energy and oil and gas sector, in particular on the subject of bitumen oil.
During the negotiations with the Director General of retail chain Lenta Jan Dunning it was announced that the network continues expansion in Tatarstan and opens a hypermarket in Kazan in 2016. According to the press service of the network, the opening is scheduled in the fourth quarter of the year. A hypermarket of the format 'supercompact' with the sales area at about 3 500 square meters will be located in leased premises on Zorge Street. Today, Lenta has three hypermarkets opened in the region — in Almetyevsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and Nizhnekamsk. The network is planning to open two more hypermarkets in the Republic of Tatarstan. Rustam Minnikhanov also offered to organize in the Republic the work of wholesale stores of Lenta.
'One of the significant events in the framework of our department is considered to be the signing of an agreement between the Industrial Development Fund and the Investment and Venture Fund of the RT. It is assumed that in the framework of this agreement we can support the project in the field of import substitution of the export-oriented companies in Tatarstan, the project is about 200 million rubles, out of which 100 million can be allocated by two funds — federal and regional,' concluded Khusainov.
The delivery mean for Alibaba group is the Russian Post
As Artyom Zdunov noted, despite the successful negotiations at the SPIEF, it is too early to talk about signing treaties: the main thing in the meeting – is to declare your position and show how we are developing.
'For example, Alibaba-group — how they will enter this world wide web of the distribution network, how we will participate in it, how the company will use the Russian Post as a tool of delivery. For us these things are fundamental. When they reach specific contracts — money loves silence. Let's take the Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs. There are four funds created that work specifically in Russia. It is fundamentally for us to have friendly contacts with the Association and to attract them to our territory. The same thing I would say about the governors: it is impossible to enter the markets without the first figure — we need support,' said the speaker.
Tatarstan will be a pilot region on the creation of international trading platform for the sale of Russian products in cooperation with Alibaba. It is the Chinese private company that works in the field of e-commerce. The group has its own electronic payment system Alipay, also it manages the internet shops Taobao and AliExpress.
Also, Zdunov told the journalists about the details of the conversation with Rustam Minnikhanov with the head of the company Jack Ma: as it turned out, as an example of a marketable product there was given Kukmara Valenki.
'The leading violin belongs to the Russian Railways'
Also, the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya talked to the Deputy Minister of Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan Almaz Khusainov, who told at what stage the project Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway is now and whether it will be actually implemented.
'There is hope. According to my data, now the design issues are being solved. There are plans to attract Chinese investors particularly to this project, the state funds of China, which could this question...' said Khusainov.
Also, our interlocutor said that currently his Ministry is working on attracting partners and it also collaborates with the representation office of RT in China, however, 'the leading violin in this question belongs to the Russian Railways'.