Kazan authorities register ‘economic recovery’
But growing indicators were compared with the disastrous 2020
Despite tough pandemic-related conditions, Kazan’s economy demonstrated growth. Public catering made the biggest breakthrough — cafe, restaurant and canteen owners earned 9,6 billion rubles in nine months, which is 39,4% more than last year. This happened thanks to tourists whose traffic hasn’t yet decreased despite all anti-COVID-19 restrictions. However, the comparison was made with the disastrous 2020 year when a lasting lockdown was declared. It is forecasted that the current restrictions will not allow end the year with profit, for instance, in retail trade though its turnover rose by 18,7%. As for the salary, Kazan moved from the 7th to the 6th position among Russia’s big cities, it is 54,286 rubles. Also, the construction of a transport and connection hub on Sibirsky Trakt, the expansion of Gorky Shosse to six lanes as well as new support measures for small and mid-sized businesses were announced at the Business Monday meeting.
New transport hub
The Business Monday in Kazan’s City Administration began 40 minutes late. The city’s Mayor Ilsur Metshin said this happened due to an “unscheduled meeting” in the Tatarstan Cabinet of Ministers due to the presentation of Gorky Railway’s new manager Sergey Dorofeyevsky. He came into office on 20 October 2021 and, according to the city mayor, arrived in Kazan for the first time.
“There are a lot of projects we implement together with Gorky Railway. A transport multimodal hub on Kompressorny, which will appear in Kazan for the first time, is one of those that were discussed. It will allow connecting suburban service, trolleybus, tram, bus traffic, taxi,” Metshin announced.
According to the project, the new hub will have suburban cash registers, a waiting area for passengers, a buffet and WCs. For passengers’ convenience, it is planned to organise two exits from the building — to the railway platform and bus stop, which will be located on Sibirsky Trakt. Works on the site have already begun.
Also, the expansion of Gorkovsky Shosse to six lanes and the construction of a relief road to the M 7 highway were discussed at the meeting. Transsib railway crosses the highway, while the relief road includes five facilities that belong to Gorky Railway. The sides exchanged opinions on how to continue the construction without violating their working mode.
Sergey Dorofeyevsky has a visit to Yudino settlement on his agenda. He will look over the facilities created by the 100th anniversary of the railway workers’ settlements. Also, he will be familiarised with the course of the Lokomotiv Stadium’s reconstruction.
Construction is driver of the economy
The summary of the urban economic development in nine months this year became the key topic of the meeting. Despite the pandemic, it saves the positive dynamics, said Acting Chairwoman of the Kazan Committee for Economic Development Guzel Mingazova. Like before, industrial enterprises remain the main source of income in the urban budget. The industrial production index totalled 105,1%. Enterprises were shipped goods, provided works and services for 408,9 billion rubles, which is 1,5 times above last year’s level.
“Four types of production — production of chemical substances and chemical products, electrical energy, gas and steam supply, production of rubber and plastic goods and the manufacture of transport and equipment — account for 61% of the total amount of industrial production,” Mingazova noted.
According to her, Kazan retained 5th place among cities with a population of over a million people in investments. Since the beginning of the year, investments in working capital reached 64,1 billion rubles, which is 2,5% more than last year. Moreover, the total amount of investments attracted by large and mid-sized enterprises is equal to 43,9 billion rubles, or 108,9% against last year.
Construction, including the construction of social facilities, is still the driver of economic development. Two schools, the Children’s Cancer, Haematology and Surgery Centre were built, the construction of a sewerage pump station ended. The growth in this area reached 123%, works for 30 billion rubles were done. 792,300 square metres of housing was delivered in nine months, which is nearly 25,8% above last year’s level, 7,616 flats with the total area of 412,000 square metres started to be used. 40,000 square metres, or 5%, of this number were built in social mortgage.
New support measures for SMEs
Despite anti-COVID-19 restrictions, retail trade turnover rose by 18,7% and amounted to 206,7 billion rubles.
“Unfortunately, the current situation regarding the coronavirus infection doesn’t let us forecast positive tendencies for the whole year in general in the fourth quarter, but e-commerce segments that continue developing such as e-retailing, marketplace commerce, e-grocery market continue cementing positions and illustrate stable growth,” the speaker noted.
No matter how much cafe and restaurant owners groan, the biggest growth was achieved in public catering. It is 9,6 billion rubles, or 139,4%. A huge tourist flow should be thanked for this. Kazan is still in the top 3 most visited Russian cities.
The amount of fee-based services increased by 12% and reached 65,4 billion rubles. 84,5% of such services provided to the population consist of utility (37,8%), telecom (28,8%), educational (12,8%) and transport (5,1%) services. The total index of consumer prices for all goods and fee-based services in the last nine months is 106,5%.
Mingazova stressed that municipal support measures for entrepreneurship in Kazan were extended into 2022. Also, new ones were introduced — subsidies to compensate for a part of costs on developing innovative projects and compensate for a part of costs on the authorisation and certification of products.
Nowadays, more than 75,500 small and mid-sized entities are registered in Kazan. Since the beginning of the year, the number of self-employed people rose by 60% — to over 52,100 people.
Average salary went up by 12,3%
The acting chairwoman of the Kazan Committee for Economic Development reported that Kazan finished sixth in the amount of the average salary among big Russian cities going up from last year’s seventh place to the sixth. It is 54,286 rubles and rose in comparison with the same period last year by 12,3%. In real terms, considering inflation, the growth was 5,5%.
“The highest salary exceeding the city’s average 1,4 times is in professional, scientific and technical jobs (80,622,5 rubles), in IT and communications (78,186,5 rubles), organisations doing financial activity (69,309,5 rubles) and in organisations producing and distributing electrical energy, gas and water (66,975 rubles).”
At the same time, there were found 161 organisations where workers receive a salary below the minimum wage. They were forced to sign agreements with 718 workers, raise the salaries.
A low unemployment level stays in Kazan. The labour centre has a bit more than 8,000 people, which is four times less than last year’s analogous period. There are 2,5 vacancies per person. More than 63% of them are skilled jobs
“Small and mid-sized businesses still find it hard the most”
Mayor Ilsur Metshin brought the amazing stat down to the earth.
“According to the report, there are positive dynamics in all key indicators. But we perfectly understand that the comparison is made to last year, which was famous for the lasting lockdown. Nevertheless, the rise in the industrial production index, the growth of investments, retail turnover and other numbers says that the economy is recovering, enterprises, different spheres of urban engineering not only withstood the tough times but also are gaining speed and compensating for losses. Small and mid-sized businesses still find it hard the most. This is why we extend municipal support measures, even though it is quite a serious shortage of incomes in the urban treasury.”
The mayor hoped that the new support measures taken on entrepreneurs’ request (subsidies linked with the development of innovative projects and payment for authorisation and certification of products) will allow representatives of small and mid-sized businesses to stay afloat.