‘We planned to attract VEB.RF, and now we will turn to the republic’

Afanasyev's industrial policy

Zelenodolsk became one of the first single-industry towns that received the opportunity to open a preferential tax regime for priority development areas on its territory to attract investment in economic diversification. But if at the start of the federal experiment, local authorities modestly talked about attracting 15 companies with an unspecified amount of private capital, now the suburbs of Kazan are ready to compete with it in industrial power. There are no such number of industrial parks in any other region of Tatarstan.

As it turned out, over the past five years, a small provincial town has turned into an industrial enclave — there are 10 industrial parks of various profiles operating here and seven more are in the process of being created. Apparently, for this reason, the head of the district came exclusively with investors from Green Valley, Friendship, M-7 industrial parks.

“A well-fed district is always hungry for new projects,” noted head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency (TIDA) Taliya Minullina

“Today, 25 companies are residents of the Zelenodolsk Priority Social Development Area, 22 of which have already launched their production, and two more companies are about to be included in the register of Priority Social Development Area residents,” said head of the Zelenodolsk district, Mikhail Afanasyev.

The total investment volume of residents amounted to 20 billion rubles, he specified. They created 12,000 jobs. Most of the residents have an industrial profile — the production of electrical equipment, equipment, window units.

Moreover, the contribution of the Priority Social Development Area residents to the economy is quite significant. Thus, the total revenue of core industrial enterprises (Zelenodolsk Gorky Plant, POZIS, Zelenodolsk Plywood Plant) is expected to be 75 billion rubles, and the residents of the priority development area and marketplaces will add more than 32 billion rubles. According to Mikhail Afanasyev, the GRP of the district by the end of the year will amount to 94 billion rubles, or with an increase of almost 7%.

In recent years, five new industrial parks have been built, including parks with the addition of 2.0: M-7 2.0, Tura 2.0, Vesna 2.0.

“In the future, we will upgrade some parks to 3.0,” Afanasyev said.

Only one of the 22 formed land plots of the M-7 2.0 park is free, and most of the residents came from the first stage, expanding their production. At Tura 2.0, the Yekaterinburg company Brozex and R1 design bureau are building a park within a park — Druzhba industrial pak. It will house a warehouse complex of Yandex Market with investments of 11.7 billion rubles.

“Before the special military operation, we used to work for unfriendly countries”

Perhaps, the announcement of the creation of a new industrial park Turbina was main news of the meeting. It would seem that it is difficult to surprise with the cutting of another industrial zone, but this park promises to become the centre of power engineering in Russia. Its co-investor will be the Moscow company Amcor, which specialises in servicing foreign turbines — General Electric, Siemens, Hitachi (now they generate almost all the electricity in the country). Under the sanctions, their repair and maintenance have completely passed into the hands of Russian companies — according to experts from the Eurasian Economic Community, about 700 gas turbine units need them.

Project manager Nikita Martelov reported that Amcor, together with its partners, registered the management company of Turbina industrial park, and six companies from the Eurasian Economic Community countries will become its residents. Officially, agreements have been reached on investing 1 billion rubles, but in fact, investments may grow to 1.5-2 billion rubles, the creators of the project believe.

“Before the special military operation, we used to work for unfriendly countries,” the speaker joked making it clear that the creation of the industrial park would save domestic generation.

Here, project manager Nikita Martelov asked for help with laying utility networks to the future park.

“We planned to attract VEB.RF funds for communications, but today we understand that it does not have sources of financing for these purposes. We plan to ask the republic for help — to support the networks,” he explained.

Later, Nikita Martelov explained that the amount in question is 340 million rubles. The final decision will be made after the investment project for Turbina industrial park is submitted for approval to the Investment Council chaired by Rustam Minnikhanov. It is assumed that 16 hectares of land next to the Zelenodolsk Mechanical Engineering Plant will be allocated for Turbina industrial park.

Amcor has already begun construction of its own gas turbine plant worth 350 million rubles. It is planned to repair foreign gas turbines here. According to Nikita Martelov, the first building for restoration work was recently built.

“The recovery section is ready, the vacuum furnace will arrive next week. The coating chamber has been delivered,” he said.

The construction of the plant is designed in three stages. The construction of the second building for the production of hot tract parts is planned for 2025-2026. At the third stage, it is planned to organise a site for assembly with the development of critical technologies for gas turbines with a capacity of 25 MW.

“So far, we are working in cooperation with suppliers from friendly countries, a 25 MW gas turbine is in operation. The plans include development at 42 MW, as an analogue of GE,” said Martelov.

“Do you order anything from Wildberries or Ozon?”

However, the first to develop the territory of the priority development area were not industrialists, but retailers and marketplaces. The favourable geographical location, proximity to the M-7 highway attracted X5 Retail Group (Pyaterochka and Perekryostok stores), Magnit, TMK Group. According to Mikhail Afanasyev, the largest food distribution centres of the Volga region operate here with a total area of 100,000 square metres.

“In total, they serve more than 2,000 stores,” the head of Zelenodolsk District specified.

E-commerce players Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex Market, Magnit Market, Sber Logistics opened nearby. The total area of warehouses is 450,000 square meters, the total investment volume is 28 billion rubles.

“Mr Afanasyev, do you order anything from Wildberries or Ozon? If so, when was the last time you made an order and what products did you order?” the listeners of the transmission asked later.

Afanasyev honestly admitted that his wife does the shopping, since she has a card and money, and he is busy with work almost around the clock.

“Yes, that's how it is with our work,” sighed head of TIDA Taliya Minullina. But, according to her, she has become addicted to buying children's books for her child.

A new growth point has become Sviyazhsk interregional multimodal logistics center with a cargo port, where a grain hub is currently being created. Mikhail Afanasyev recalled that the first express freight train with wheat to Turkey was sent from Kazan to Novorossiysk via the Sviyazhsk-Zernoprodukt elevator complex in September.

“The Sviyazhsk-Zernoprodukt elevator complex is included in the all-Russian concept for the development of container transportation in the European part of Russia. Therefore, 15,000 workers will be needed here over the next three years,” he predicted.

“Is it necessary to build hotels if Kazan is nearby?”

The industrial wave somehow completely absorbed Zelenodolsk, so representatives of business public associations were interested: is there any interest in building hotels, restaurants?

“Zelenodolsk is the second suburban area, proximity to Kazan has its pros and some cons. Well, what's the point of building a hotel in Zelenodolsk if Kazan is nearby, 30 minutes away? The capital, gastronomy, nightlife are there... Of course, the suburbs will not be able to surprise so much,” Mikhail Afanasyev reasoned pragmatically.

But he agreed that three-star hotels and hostels are needed. “This need has begun to appear as businesses develop, and people come to us on business trips. We feel this need and are ready to create conditions and provide support,” he promised.

Following the same logic, he discussed the need for restaurants in Zelenodolsk. “There is the Tatar Estate in Kazan, and many other offers in Kazan,” he said making it clear that there was no need to take away the bread of the capital’s restaurateurs.

“Although such a project will be in greater demand than hotels. Residents need to hold weddings, anniversaries, and now we are pitching tents. And the sanatorium partially fills this niche,” the head of the district hesitated. And he concluded that the authorities are not doing enough here, but there is potential.