‘It’s scary to change often, but...’: how Topilin promised to change Labour law to overcome a personnel shortage

Four hours of work without a break

This year's final reporting panel on summarising the socio-economic development of Tatarstan broke the absolute record in time — it lasted almost 4 hours! So far, such events have been held in 1.5-2 hours, but this time the organisers seem to have decided to “embrace the immensity” and launched into a marathon from the macroeconomic indicators of Tatarstan to the reform of federal investment instruments and state support.

A full hall gathered senators and deputies of the State Duma, heads of municipalities, top managers — in total about 700 people listened to report after report without interruption. Although initially there were fourteen speakers on the agenda at once, they did not make a single pause. Few of the speakers observed the timing. For example, a young blonde Ekaterina Lozgacheva, the director of the Department of Strategic Development of the Central Bank's Financial Market, spoke for half an hour that “the financial market is in good shape, and its segments are developing well”. By that time, it had already become known that the Central Bank's key rate remained at an exorbitant level of 16% per annum. But following the proprieties, no one began to ask seditious questions about this.

At the end of the third hour of the collegium, the State Duma deputies lost their nerves, from whose ranks a slight bewilderment could be heard. The head of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Maxim Topilin, received warm applause, who spoke within 10 minutes.

Breaking ties and expensive money

The chairman of the board, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan Midkhat Shagiakhmetov outlined two main challenges for the Tatarstan economy. This is the severance of logistical ties and the tightening of monetary policy, which were aggravated by many other negative factors. The economic situation in 2023 continued to be managed by the operational headquarters for ensuring socio-economic stability under his leadership (the headquarters was established by order of the head of the Republic of Tatarstan dated March 29, 2022).

“Coordinated work was organised with enterprises to ensure socio-economic stability and economic development, their participation in support measures," Midkhat Shagiakhmetov said. “Despite the limitations and difficulties, the introduction of new and secondary sanctions, the tightening of monetary policy and the shortage of personnel, enterprises of the republic maintain investment activity and rebuild logistics," he said.

As a result, GRP growth amounted to 103.6%, and the gross regional product itself reached 4,107 trillion rubles. If compared with previous years, this is the minimum required to achieve economic growth. Let us remind that a year ago, Rustam Minnikhanov said that in order to achieve a GRP of 5 trillion rubles by 2030, it is necessary to maintain growth rates of at least 3.6% per year. But the growth rate of investments in fixed assets remains. According to Shagiakhmetov, this year they exceeded 1 trillion rubles, and two thirds were accounted for by private capital.

Equipment wear and shortage of limits for exporters

The minister paid special attention to the high wear of equipment in industry. He called for more active use of federal support measures to upgrade production facilities. So far, 12 applications worth 17 billion rubles have been supported. “Last year there were 2 times more of them," he criticised. Then he thanked the head of the Russian Export Center for the prompt consideration of the exporters' applications, but not all of them were able to receive them. “The reason is the limited limits. We ask you to consider the possibility of expanding resources," he addressed federal officials.

Investment projects are being implemented in conditions of a high Central Bank rate. According to preliminary estimates, from 2006 to 2023, tax incentives worth 16 billion rubles were provided, investments in the amount of 762 billion rubles were attracted, tax deductions to the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan are estimated at 27.5 billion rubles. According to Shagiakhmetov, the utilization of industrial parks increased to 71.5%.

“Licensors turned away, a number of European equipment suppliers — vendors”

Nizhnekamskneftekhim CEO Marat Falakhov admitted that last year he faced the same challenges that the entire industry felt. “Licensors turned away from us, a number of European equipment suppliers are vendors, there is no way to carry out installation work with them," he said.

But most of the supplies of imported sanctioned items of special chemicals, catalysts and raw materials for the production of finished products were replaced by supplies of analogues from friendly countries. In total, until February 1, 2022, there were 264 positions of special chemicals, including 118 from the EU and the USA. Out of 118 positions, analogues have been selected for 94 positions of special chemicals, 15 positions — current pilot tests for the selection of an analogue, nine positions are planned for 2024. Nizhnekamskneftekhim is not reducing tax payments to the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan, despite economic conditions. The average figure for the three-year period 2022-2024 is 12.6 billion rubles.

In 2022, an analogue was found and the supplies of n-butyllithium were resumed from the second half of August for the production of rubbers, as well as mineral oil for GPPS. At the end of 2023, analogues were selected for 99% of the positions of critical special chemicals that were at risk after the introduction of sanctions restrictions. In the conditions of withdrawal of foreign suppliers, vendors, licensors, the risks of securing imported items of equipment and repair components prohibited for import into the Russian Federation are mitigated by 99%.

“Thank you all, the report is finished”

Then, at the final board meeting of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan, federal officials of the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade spoke, and it seemed that they were competing in what they were going to change to stimulate economic growth. Most of all, they were interested in the initiatives of the head of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, ex-Minister of Labour of Russia Maxim Topilin, who promised to cope with the personnel shortage at the legislative level.

“Everyone spoke about a shortage of labour resources. This was predicted at the federal level, steps were being taken to get away from the deficit," he said.

According to him, it is necessary to look for reserves within companies, but there are also legislative ways.

“There is also labour legislation, it is very conservative. It is often difficult to change it and, I would say, scary. In fact, you don't have to be afraid of anything, you have to approach it carefully. There are serious resources there, and we will work on it," he assured.

Personnel shortage is the number one problem in the industry of Tatarstan and other industrial regions of Russia. Against the background of record low unemployment, it has to be satisfied through the centralised import and placement of foreign workers. The rais of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, has recently spoken about this problem repeatedly at all levels.

Minnikhanov himself was the last to approach the microphone with a closing speech, looking rather tired, like the whole audience. “Midkhat Rafkatovich has reported in detail. Huge words of gratitude to our guests — they are not guests, but partners. Everything that is happening and these results are our joint work," he summed up succinctly.