Oleg Korobchenko: ‘Tatarstan is glad to have joint projects with China and is ready for fruitful cooperation’

“Tatarstan is ready for fruitful cooperation with China”

The conference on trade and economic cooperation between Hunan and Tatarstan within the framework of cooperation between the Volga regions of Russia and the territories of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China opened in Kazan on 17 July. The meeting was attended by officials of the republic and the Chinese province, business representatives of the two states.

Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister of Industry and Trade Oleg Korobchenko noted in his speech that the republic has a powerful industrial and production, favourable investment climate and high scientific potential. The advantage of the region lies in its favourable geographical location, rich natural resources, highly qualified personnel, scientific complex and developed transport infrastructure.

“Strengthening cooperation with Asia is very important for the republic. I would like to highlight the high level of trade and economic relations with the People's Republic of China. The foreign trade turnover between Tatarstan and China amounted to more than $3 billion last year. Seven cooperation agreements have been signed with the provinces of China," Oleg Korobchenko said.

According to him, the republic strives to develop cooperation with China in a variety of areas — science, education, humanitarian cooperation. They conduct cultural, youth, and sports exchanges, and develops university cooperation. More than 2.5 thousand Chinese students are studying in Tatarstan this year. The deputy prime minister of the Republic of Tatarstan stressed that relations with China are developing rapidly thanks to the activities of the republic's trade and economic representative office in China and the Consulate General of China in Kazan, which has operated since 2015. He reminded about the annual Russian-Chinese ROSTCHI forum, which is going to be held in November. He noted that Hunan is one of the largest Chinese provinces, where manufacturing and agriculture are traditionally strong. “Tatarstan is glad to have joint projects with China and is ready for fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation in all spheres," he said.

Total investments of Hunan Province in Russia reached $177 million

The president of the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, recalled the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and China and the Years of Culture of China and Russia, which are planned to be held in 2024-2025. The speaker also presented the industrial potential of the province, spoke about advanced sectors of the economy, including mechanical engineering, electronic, information industry, petrochemistry, automobile production. He noted the importance of developing Russian-Chinese trade and economic relations and stressed how China always cherishes the traditions of friendship between Russia and China. According to him, the trade turnover between the two states exceeded 190 billion yuan, which is by 49% more than last year.

“Total investments of Hunan Province in Russia reached $177 million. A large number of Hunan and Russian companies are engaged in agriculture, mechanical engineering, energy and the environment, in-depth cooperation in the areas such as security and strategic cooperation, infrastructure creation," he stressed.

According to him, Hunan will use this meeting as a new starting point for strengthening comprehensive economic and trade cooperation between Tatarstan and China.

Welcoming the guests on behalf of the Russian parliament, State Duma Deputy Airat Farrakhov noted that one of the most important priorities in his work is to maximise the promotion of bilateral relations between Russia and China. He spoke about the activities of the joint working group of parliamentarians of the People's Republic of China and Russia, expressed hope that the next meeting is going to be held in Kazan as part of ROSTCHI forum:

“We think this forum will be even more successful for mutual relations, primarily economic ones. As a member of this working group, I would like to say that one of the main tasks of politicians and parliamentarians from China and Russia is to remove barriers that exist in mutual trade, technology exchange, and the development of relations. The number of these barriers constantly increases, and our task is to look for joint ways to solve the problem.

“China is committed to helping build an open global economy”

Han Mingyu, Deputy Consul General of China in Kazan, said that Hunan is an important industrial and economic centre, its GRP is in 9th place in the country. “Under the strategic leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin, the Sino-Russian comprehensive partnership in the new era is experiencing the best period in history. In May of this year, President Putin visited China, the heads of state had a deep exchange of views on bilateral relations, the international situation and other important issues," he stressed.

According to him, China firmly follows the path of openness reform and is “committed to helping build an open global economy”. Hunan is a large economic province of the People's Republic of China, has large industrial clusters in the field of construction machinery, electronics, information technology, new materials, three large oil corporations operate here, as well as agriculture, tea production and tourism are developing.

Deputy Head of the Investment Development Agency of Tatarstan Marina Epifantseva spoke about the development of relations between the regions, reported on Chinese language courses for civil servants in Tatarstan so that the parties could better build business ties. According to her, the republic has the closest cooperation with China. She cited the example of Haier Corporation, which has invested more than $25 billion in the region.

Artur Nikolaev, the deputy chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan, recalled that just until recently the trade turnover between China and Russia reached $63 billion, but 2 years ago it grew to $190 billion, and last year to $240 billion, “that is, the growth is really explosive and very useful for the two countries”. Even by the results of this first half of the year, the growth was more than 2%, he added, pointing out that this demonstrates mutual interest. Representing the largest association of entrepreneurs of Tatarstan, which includes more than 2.5 thousand companies, he declared the openness of the chamber to interaction with colleagues from China. At the same time, Tatarstan entrepreneurs who travel to China apply to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan with various requests.

“Here we work closely with the Ministry of Economy, with the Export Support Centre and try to reach out to those enterprises that can really help. I would like to say that the CCI is such a kind of entry centre for our and Chinese companies, mutually beneficial cooperation is underway. The most important thing is that you find each other," he stressed.

The conference was also attended by the management of the Hunan Department of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, representatives of local companies Hunan Steel Corporation LLC and Hunan Construction Investment Company, spoke about promising areas of cooperation with Tatarstan. The meeting finished with negotiations between enterprises of China and Russia.

Hunan Province is located in southeastern China, on the southern bank of the Yangtze River. Its administrative centre and largest city is Changsha. According to the latest census, over 66.4 million people live here. Hunan is one of the ten most developed provinces in China, and last year its GRP grew by 4.6% and exceeded 5 trillion yuan, which is about $700 billion.

The province mines coal, manganese, tin, iron ore, antimony, graphite, and lead. Leading industries: electricity generation and water supply, manufacturing, mining. They also grow tea, rapeseed, peanuts, rice and tobacco. There is a free trade zone in the region, in total there are more than 20 in China. Mitsubishi Motors, Bosch, Hitachi, Philips, LG Electronics, Microsoft and other well-known corporations are among the province's foreign investors. In addition to being a major industrial and economic center, Hunan is also a popular tourist destination.

Annual growth of trade turnover between Tatarstan and China

The trade turnover between Russia and China broke a record last year, reaching $240.11 billion. Exports from China to our country increased by 46.9% and amounted to about $110.97 billion. Russian exports to China increased to $129.13 billion (+12.7%). Experts attribute the trade growth between the states to the introduction of Western sanctions against Russia.

“In recent years, Russian-Chinese relations have reached an unprecedented level," Rustam Minnikhanov said back in June on the sidelines of the SPIEF, adding that the whole country was watching Vladimir Putin's recent visit to China. The rais of the republic stressed that Tatarstan, as one of the leading and industrially developed regions of Russia, is actively involved in the development of Russian-Chinese cooperation. “It is gratifying to note the annual growth in trade turnover between Tatarstan and China. By the end of last year, it doubled and exceeded $3 billion," he said.

The most ambitious Chinese projects in Tatarstan are implemented by Haier, which has built five factories for the production of household appliances here and invested $23 billion. The concern intends to invest another $1 billion in the region.

An industrial park is being created in Naberezhnye Chelny, where 11 Chinese companies will become residents. Besides, there are projects in the field of manufacturing and it is planned to launch several more new production facilities. As the Investment Development Agency of the Republic of Tatarstan stated, crop production, animal husbandry and agricultural machinery are the most promising industries. The cooperation in the fields of energy, robotics, microelectronics and mechanical engineering is also being considered.