Zelenodolsk IT Park to be implemented under Putin’s 100 Parks by 2030 programme?

Long preparations

Zelenodolsk has been lobbying for the creation of an IT park for several years, but the project launch has been constantly postponed indefinitely. The last time the IT Park announced the upcoming opening of the facility was last year, but then there was another false start.

The delay in the process did not frighten either the local authorities or the management company, because the emergence of an IT park is not just a new city location, but an important dominant that emphasizes the special status of the city. With its opening, Zelenodolsk will automatically be included in the registers of advanced IT cities in the country, get rid of the provincial feel, so the city will not abandon the idea under any circumstances.

Recently, the IT Park once again presented the concept of the future IT quarter to the head of the government of Tatarstan. It has not undergone any significant changes. As follows from the slides, the IT-park itself will be located in the former building of the Tattelecom communications centre. This is the city centre, as is customary to locate such facilities.

The total area is 4,000 square metres, which is slightly less than the federal minimum of 5,000 square metres. It is planned to accommodate 26-30 resident companies in the park. The main focus is information technology, educational video content, digital sports. Bars Group from Kazan and the well-known software supplier iSpring from Yoshkar-Ola are still considered anchor companies. By the way, Bars Group specialises in complex projects for federal agencies, regional structures, large state and commercial companies, the turnover for 2023 was 4.9 billion rubles (an increase of 10%). iSpring is a developer of a platform for corporate online training, the turnover for 2023 was 2.4 billion (an increase of 19%). The names of other residents were not named, they are being attracted by the industrial cluster of the Republic of Tatarstan, Roman Sukhar, a member of the board and head of the industry committee for microelectronics and household appliances, told Realnoe Vremya.

However, two weeks ago, the founder of iSpring, Yuri Uskov, was detained in Yoshkar-Ola in a case of large-scale fraud, and his office was searched. This was a shock for the entire Russian market. The head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksud Shadayev, and the Tatarstan Minister Ayrat Khayrullin spoke in his defence.

“All our IT Parks are profitable”: they are asking to allocate about 400 million rubles from the budget

Legally, the Zelenodolsk IT park is being formed as a regional branch of the IT Park. There are currently two of them — in Naberezhnye Chelny and Kazan. Like them, the Zelenodolsk branch will be under the management of the Kazan IT Park. This means that its residents will receive a single package of tax benefits, and the management company itself will be exempt from paying property tax on the Zelenodolsk facility.

“All our IT parks are profitable. Here, the potential revenue of residents will exceed 500 million rubles,” head of special projects at the Kazan IT Park Valeria Vasilyeva told Realnoe Vremya.

Here they expect to attract IT companies from Mari El, Chuvashia and Bashkiria. There is no such infrastructure in these regions yet, although attempts are being made. “There is a great infrastructure around the IT park. There are parks, lyceums and shopping centres, residential buildings nearby. There is all the necessary infrastructure so that companies from nearby regions can enter,” Roman Sukhar noted.

Why is it taking so long to form the Zelenodolsk park? According to Roman Sukhar, the Tattelecom building came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Republic of Tatarstan only last year, and it took a long time to assess it. Now the main problem is to find resources for reconstruction. “We need to change the layout of the premises to suit the needs of the residents. When you carry out a redevelopment, we have to change the utility networks,” said Valeria Vasilyeva. According to her, the Kazan Park itself is ready to cover part of the costs, the Zelenodolsk district administration is ready to cover another part, but about 400 million rubles will be required from the Tatarstan budget. When will the project be ready? It depends on the results of the presentation, the publication's interlocutors said.

Zelenodolsk is being prepared for competitions

However, this time, the Tatarstan prime minister refrained from giving a verdict after inspecting the exhibition. Maybe the concept is “raw”, the time is not right, or there is no money? The reasons remain to be guessed. Head of Zelenodolsk District Mikhail Afanasyev diplomatically avoided this topic in his annual report for 2024. So is it worth scaling up if the creation of an IT park in small towns is more exotic than a general trend? Does the tourist city on the Volga have a chance to break into the major league of the IT industry? The management company of the Kazan IT Park is looking for a way out in attracting federal support instruments. According to Valeria Vasilyeva, an application is being developed for participation in the competitive selection under the Russian Government Resolution No. 1119, when the management company receives subsidies to reimburse the costs of modernizing the infrastructure of technoparks in the high-tech sector, and then returns them through tax revenues from residents.

Plan B is the opportunity to participate in the competition of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation to select 100 technoparks by 2030. The selection starts in April of this year, but there is a nuance. Tatarstan, as a region with high indicators of socio-economic development, “cut” the subsidy limit by 10 times — up to 50 million for each IT project. “A region can apply for state support for 5 projects, but the limit for each is 50 million rubles. For regions with low socio-economic development, the limit for each project is 500 million rubles. The results will be announced at the end of May," said Mikhail Seregin, head of the Infrastructure Development department of the Association of Clusters, Technology Parks and SEZs of Russia.

“In accordance with the instruction of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to create at least 100 industrial parks, technology parks and business parks for SMEs, the implementation of the event to create industrial parks from 2025 is carried out by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia as part of the national project Efficient and Competitive Economy. According to the Rules for the provision and distribution of subsidies from the federal budget, the subjects of the Russian Federation are divided into four groups depending on the level of estimated budgetary security. The Republic of Tatarstan belongs to the 4th group, where subsidy funds from the federal budget (no more than 50 million rubles) can be used only for the purchase of equipment (financing from 2026). To date, the selection procedure has not been announced. The Republic of Tatarstan is working on preparing applications,” reported the press service of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Currently, more than 280 Tatarstan companies have taken advantage of regional measures to support the IT industry, according to the RUS SOFT report. Until the end of 2026, a reduced rate for the simplified tax system is in effect for residents: 1% is income, 5% are income-expenses. In addition, there are various tools to support start-ups: Student Start-up (a grant of 1 million for an idea), Start programme (a grant for a new project — from an idea to a solution ready for market entry; from 4 million to 12 million), Development/Commercialisation programme (a grant for the development and release of new solutions — up to 30 million), programmes from Skolkovo (grants for the pilot implementation of software/software; from 20 million to 700 million). In total, Tatarstan accounts for about 4% of the total turnover of all Russian software companies (over 70 billion).

Payback — at least 10 years

“Investments in IT parks in small cities will pay off within 10 years — this is longer than in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kazan. But this period can be ‘pulled up’ if federal support tools are involved,” Mikhail Seregin expressed his opinion on the method of implementing IT infrastructure in the provinces.

According to him, the creation of technology parks is becoming more expensive every year. “The payback period for a technology park of up to 5,000 square metres, if you plant about 20 companies, will be 10 years. Now technology parks in the high-tech sector are tied to industry. According to Federal Law 488, residents are required to build synergies with adjacent enterprises. The experience of technology parks in Chelny and Tolyatti, created within the first programme of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation, shows a high result. They are completely filled. Investments in the provinces pay off if there are additional preferences for residents.

Is it possible to lure residents from other regions? “The total turnover of software companies in Mari El is approximately 15 billion, but according to the RUSSOFT database, it does not exceed 4 billion. Consequently, it can be assumed that some companies have transferred most of their business to other regions,” noted RUSSOFT chief analyst Pavel Zhelnovitsky. Apparently, the conditions for high-tech business created by local authorities is worse than in many other regions.

“The emergence of new players in the market, such as branches of IT parks, is a positive phenomenon that contributes to the development of the innovation ecosystem in the Republic of Tatarstan and in Russia as a whole,” commented the press service of Innopolis. “Each project, be it the Innopolis SEZ or branches of IT parks, has its own unique specialisation and tasks, which allows us not to compete, but to complement each other. Innopolis, as the largest IT centre in the region, offers residents a unique infrastructure, educational opportunities, as well as access to international markets and research projects. The development of branches of IT parks in Zelenodolsk and Naberezhnye Chelny will create additional opportunities for start-ups and companies that will be able to choose the most suitable conditions for themselves.

“The project in Zelenodolsk is a logical continuation of the project in Kazan and an important step in the context of the strategic development of the regional network,” said Olga Shirokova, partner at NF GROUP. “This project, unlike larger IT centres in megacities, can be positioned both for the business of Zelenodolsk itself and as an alternative for companies that need access to resources and infrastructure, but at a lower cost.”