‘The Arabs came and said, we know your containers that are produced in Nizhnekamsk, we want to buy your technology…’
A Belarusian mission: to attract World of Tanks to Innopolis, to find a state order for 250 lifts and to get bogies for trams
Tatarstan delegation has recently visited two countries — brotherly Belarus and Germany. During the briefing, the members of the delegation told reporters how the Republic of Tatarstan is planning to upgrade the fleet of trams with the help of Belarus, and how the foreign companies responded to the Tatarstan products at the International exhibition of plastic and rubber K-2016.
Belarusian trams with lifts and a place in the sun for Belorusneft in Tatarstan
On 17 and 18 October, the Tatarstan delegation headed by President Rustam Minnikhanov visited Belarus. During the visit, they held meetings with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Prime Minister Andrey Kobyakov. After the visit, the media spread the news that Lukashenko asked Minnikhanov to find in Tatarstan the work for the company Belorusneft and proposed to supply in Tatarstan the passenger, cargo, utility, and road machinery. The journalists were told the details of this trip at a briefing in RT Cabinet.
The Minister of Industry and Trade of Tatarstan Albert Karimov in the first place stressed that Belarus is one of the old reliable partners of Tatarstan, and that in 2015 the foreign trade turnover with the Republic of Belarus amounted to almost 900 million dollars, 700 million out of which — the exports to the Republic of Belarus and the import of 200 million.
A meeting of the Belarus-Tatarstan working group on the supply of petrochemical products took place in the framework of the visit. They also reported on the actual volume of supplies of Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC products to the enterprises of Belarus. Now in the neighboring Republic there are 17 petrol stations of Tatneft, the company is also ready to build additional four stations.
As for Lukashenko suggestion to attract Belorusneft to work in Tatarstan, Karimov explained that it is too early to talk about concrete terms, these issues will be addressed in detail.
The head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Taliya Minullina noted that 'we can boast quite serious figures in turnover, but we do not observe such figures in investments today, at least in inflow of investments from Belarus'. According to Minullina, 50% of all investments, attracted by the friendly Republic, come from Russia. Among the investment projects that are being discussed — localization of production of lifts in Tatarstan and localization of joint with Belkommunmash and Metroelektrotrans project on modernization of tram fleet in Naberezhnye Chelny.
One of the possible variants of financing of the project — the attraction of the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus. It is expected that final assembly of the trams will be made in Naberezhnye Chelny. In-depth modernization of the bogies will be manufactured mainly from spare parts of the Belarusian companies; the engineering companies of Tatarstan will be engaged in the production of the tram bodies.
'If we succeed to agree – then it will happen'
In terms of localization of the lift production, now the main difficulty is that the financial model of the project involves the purchase by Tatarstan of 250 lifts from Belarus. Answering the question of Realnoe Vremya, Minullina said that the Republic has already concluded agreements, and it's not so easy to put a new supplier into this system. 'Now a working process is going on. If we succeed to agree – then it will happen.'
Another investment project with Belarus, which had been discussed before the visit, is the project on the construction in Tatarstan of a plant for the production of reflective glass beads with a logistics centre. The products are designed for visibility of a horizontal marking of roads of general use. Such productions are expensive in Europe, in China they are of low quality, therefore, according to Minullina, in Russia the company will be in demand.
Besides, during the visit to Belarus they discussed supplies of Belarusian passenger, cargo, utility and road machinery to the Republic of Tatarstan. PO ELAZ JSC and the Minsk engine plant have signed a dealer agreement providing the implementation and maintenance of the entire range of engines. RariTEK in Nabereznhye Chelny and the Minsk engine plant have signed a cooperation agreement on development of gas piston engines based on diesel engine MMZ.
How the developers of World of Tanks were touted to Innopolis
The Minister of Informatization and Сommunications Roman Shaikhutdinov told about the work of the high technologies park in Belarus, which includes 164 residents. At the same time, the export indicator in terms of turnover per citizen is the highest in the world — the export of IT is about $ 800 million and 98% of the total revenue.
The Tatarstan delegation also met with the largest computer game developer Wargaming, which owns World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, World of Warships. Tatarstan has been negotiating with the company almost a year to attract them to Innopolis. However, the agreements have been reached only in a part of a possibility to conduct in the RT of the world championship World of Tanks and its inclusion in the eSports events of the Russian Federation.
Besides, they discussed a possibility of attracting in Innopolis with the company EPAM, which is engaged in software development.
Tatarstan in search of German partners
Another visit that was discussed at the briefing was the visit of Tatarstan delegation headed by RT President Rustam Minnikhanov to Düsseldorf on 19 November to the International exhibition of plastic and rubber K-2016, organized in the exhibition center Messe Düsseldorf. With the support of this company, the capital of Tatarstan hosts the exhibition of plastics and rubber 'Interplastika. Kazan'.
Karimov said that the Tatarstan-German trade turnover amounted to more than 1 billion rubles last year, 22% of which is the import of German machinery and equipment. Therefore, one of the main goals of the visit was designated as the search of new partners. At the exhibition K-2016, Tatarstan was represented by several regional enterprises: AyPlast, Multiplast, Tatkhimplast, Plant P-D Tatneft-Alabuga Steklovolokno. A separate stand was devoted to the Kamsky innovative territorial and production cluster Innokam, where it were also presented Kazanorgsintez, Nizhnekamskneftekhim and Tatneftekhiminvest-holding.
The Director General of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding Rafinat Yarullin told that the exhibition was attended by three thousand companies and he compared it with our exhibitions at the Kazan fair, which were attended at best by 230 companies. There were 120 people from the Republic of Tatarstan at K-2016, excluding companies that were not among the Tatarstan delegation. The speaker gave to understand that foreign potential partners are interested in the Republic.
'After the speeches of Mr. Karimov and Mrs Minullina, the Germans went to our booth Innokam and began direct negotiations. The Arabs came, they said, we know your containers that are produced in Nizhnekamsk, we want to buy the technology. It's great,' said Yarullin.
In the framework of the exhibition, it was signed a cooperation agreement between the companies Brabender GmbH & Co. KG and the Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N.Tupolev.
The agreement provides the mutually beneficial cooperation of the Kazan University and the German company in the field of training of highly qualified specialists for the chemical industry, as well as the implementation of joint scientific-technical projects and programs. It is expected that at the Kazan Technological University it will be established a centre of the company Brabender. It will be the base for training students in areas related to chemical technologies, particularly polymer chemistry.
The Director General of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding put special emphasis on the 3D printer and the importance of using of new technologies. Taliya Minullina in continuation of the subject said that a private German company is looking for a partner in Tatarstan and is interested in Innopolis as a scientific platform for the development of software and implementation of 3D printing. The company specislizes in the production of modifiers for plastics and has a patented technology for modern 3D printing of plastic parts and components of complex shapes.
According to Rafinat Yarullin, polypropylene, polycarbonate and rubber of Nizhnekamskneftekhim were products of great interest at the exhibition.