The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to create new business communication formats – many meetings, forums, and summits have gone online. In addition, new system approaches are being developed – for example, the launch of the "100% Tatarstan" intellectual business space (age category 12+) will take place in the Republic of Tatarstan by the end of August. On the eve of the launch of the project, which will work on the site 100tatarstan.com Talia Minullina, the head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency, told TASS about the features of the new project, as well as the opportunities and prospects of the region as a whole, which determine its investment climate and future.
– What do you think is the phenomenon of Tatarstan? How did it become Russia's leading region in the economy and industry? How did you manage to attract Russian and foreign investors?
– This is a synergistic effect of a number of factors. The first is the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. He actively participates in negotiations, works not only as a politician, but also as a senior executive with a business mindset. He delves into financial models and technological subtleties. The second factor is the team he formed, the corporate spirit. Without proper planning, it is impossible to develop progressively, systematically and effectively. Socio-economic development of the Republic of Tatarstan is defined in the Strategy 2030. The President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov pays attention to the sustainable development of the region, in particular, the balanced development of the cluster and green economy.
The main strategic goal of the Strategy is defined as Tatarstan-2030-a global competitive sustainable region, a driver of the Volga-Kama growth pole. Tatarstan is a leader in the quality of interconnected development of human capital, institutions, infrastructure, economy, external integration (the axial Eurasian region of Russia) and internal space; a region with advanced development rates, high involvement in the international division of labor.
Tatarstan is distinguished from other regions by the best investment infrastructure in Russia with available engineering networks and management companies. Developing investment infrastructure and attracting investment to the Republic's economy is a priority task set by the President of Tatarstan. The development of investment infrastructure contributes to the strengthening of investment activity and, as a result, the prosperity of the Republic and the welfare of our citizens. Without attracting investment, the economy's opportunities are small and there are simply not enough resources to implement social programs.
Today, the Republic has 100 industrial parks, 5 territories of advanced socio-economic development-Naberezhnye Chelny, Zelenodolsk, Nizhnekamsk, Chistopol, Mendeleevsk and two special economic zones – SEZ "Innopolis" and SEZ "Alabuga".
For investors of Tatarstan there are various development institutions and advisory bodies, such as the Investment Council of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Club of investors of the Republic of Tatarstan, who are working on the implementation of socially significant projects, as well as the federal development institutes, among which the Monotowns Development Fund and Industry Development Fund.
In addition, we have a rich industrial and raw material base, which attracts investors. Today, according to statistics, every three days a company with foreign capital is registered in Tatarstan. This is the first one. And second – our investors are reinvesting. Here are two good indicators of an investment climate that is favorable for investors.
– What areas have become the main ones for investment? Give examples of areas where private investment is increasing, and tell us about the most interesting projects.
– The majority of investments in fixed assets from non-budgetary sources last year were directed to the development of manufacturing, agriculture and forestry, mining, production of petrochemical products, construction, education, activities in the field of culture, sports, health and social services, professional and scientific activities.
10 districts of Tatarstan demonstrated an increase in private investment by more than 1 billion rubles compared to 2018. These include Naberezhnye Chelny, Agryzsky, Novosheshminsky, Zelenodolsky, Sabinsky, Laishevsky, Vysokogorsky, Aktanyshsky, Pestrechinsky andTukayevsky districts.
For more than 10 years, we have been strengthening cooperation with Islamic countries and developing the Halal industry. And for this purpose, we annually hold the "Russia-Islamic world: KazanSummit" international economic summit. In 2019, 42 cooperation agreements were signed at the summit, the summit resulted in the opening of a branch of the Iranian Bank in Tatarstan, the foundation of a new open mutual investment fund for market financial instruments under Ak Bars Bank, and much more.
2019 was a rich year for the opening of new facilities. Wildberries has launched the construction of a wholesale distribution center in Zelenodolsk. The project involves investments in the amount of 5 billion rubles, creating more than 4 thousand jobs. Also in Zelenodolsk, the X5 Retail Group warehouse complex was put into operation with an investment volume of 2.3 billion rubles. The capacity allows handling 5 thousand tons of cargo per day and servicing 1,200 retail facilities. The distance from the loading point to the unloading point is 410 km. An investment project for the production of microfibres and products made from them has been launched in Nizhnekamsk, with an investment volume of 2.1 billion rubles. A factory for the production of washing machines and smart TVs of the Chinese Haier Corporation was opened in Naberezhnye Chelny. In the second quarter of 2021, a new factory for the production of smart TVs will start operating in the Haier Industrial Park (Naberezhnye Chelny) and a warehouse for Haier finished products will be built. The total investment in the project will amount to almost 2.2 billion rubles. The "Alishech Ltd." international company plans to build a blood plasma fractionation plant in Tatarstan, by 2024 the production capacity of which will reach 500 tons per year. During the implementation of the project, Innopolis plans to produce more than 25 names of scarce drugs. The total investment in the project is about 9 billion rubles.
As part of the implementation of the cluster economy and the development of investment infrastructure in Tatarstan, we plan to create a food cluster in the Sabinsky district. The project involves a platform for the sale of agricultural products produced on the territory of the Republic.
With Japanese investors – IDA Sange Rus - we develop housing construction, and we develop services with the international company Didi Chuxing. These are just some examples.
– Which countries are interested in investing in the region?
– Today, we have 79 countries that invest in the Republic of Tatarstan. Over the past 10 years, we have made significant progress in this direction and increased our investment volumes.
When I first became head of the investment development agency, our goal was to attract investment from new countries, so our team attracted the first investments from Japan, South Korea, and the UAE to the Republic. We have worked hard on this, because there should be success stories and examples for other investors from these countries. It is always easier for them to contact their compatriots, find out the business situation, share their experience in our market, and in this case they have direct feedback – it is easier for us to apply for new investors from these countries.
Also I wanted to note that it is important to not think with countries, companies and specific sectors, because geographically we focus on Europe and Asia, and America, Canada – we have no limits: from the point of view of policy, it is regulated by the Federal center. We are working to develop trade and economic relations and, within our authority, to attract investment.
If we talk about the amount of funds that have already been invested in our economy – this is capital investment from the Republic of Turkey, they are our number 1 investor, and their investment in the Republic is approaching $ 3 billion. From Europe, Germany and France are the leaders: we create joint productions with companies from these countries. Of course, there is a lot of investment from the Netherlands, but we understand that these are not basically Dutch companies. Today, among the top five of our major investors are America and China as well. It is clear that American companies have the necessary capacity and they are interested in the Russian market, they enter through Tatarstan. The same can be said about Chinese companies that are currently experiencing global expansion, including to the market of Russia and the CIS countries – and they enter through Tatarstan.
It is important for us to be a long-term and conscientious partner for any country, and in this regard, we are actively working on opening Consulates General of foreign states in Kazan. We already have Consulates-General of Iran, Hungary, Turkey, China, Turkmenistan, and a new Consulate of Saudi Arabia is being opened.
– How do you manage to maintain a leading position in the National rating of the investment climate in the Russian regions for more than five years? Tatarstan continues to hold a leading position in terms of the investment climate and remains the best entry point to the Russian market for international companies.
– The success of recent years in investment activities is due to the fact that the leadership of the Republic paid special attention to this. We are developing investment infrastructure, improving conditions for implementing investment projects, and improving investment legislation, including public-private partnership mechanisms. The result of the huge work done is that over 10 years, the volume of investment in fixed assets has doubled in absolute terms (and this is taking into account the global financial crisis) and amounted to 640 billion rubles in 2019, and the volume of foreign direct investment – 1.8 billion dollars. According to this indicator, Tatarstan is in the first place among the regions of the Volga Federal district.
Tatarstan is open for cooperation. They know about Tatarstan and are drawn to it. In 2019, we received 189 high-level delegations; made a presentation of investment Tatarstan in the Agency's office for 2,115 specialists and experts; presented investment potential at 75 major world conferences; actively promoted Tatarstan on the investment portal, which is regularly updated in 11 languages.
More than 1,000 references to investments in Tatarstan (thanks to our work) appear in world business publications in Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Germany, Bahrain, China, the UAE and other countries. Thus, foreign investment has more than quadrupled.
– How did the pandemic affect global investment flows and private capital inflows to the Republic of Tatarstan?
– Despite the negative trend in the world for a sharp decline in investment (according to the forecast data of UNCTAD in 2020-2021, the drop will be up to 40%), in this situation, it is important for the Republic to provide comprehensive assistance and support to business, establish feedback and create the most comfortable conditions for doing business. Now our task is to work online as efficiently as possible and help those investors whose projects are being implemented during this difficult economic period.
In the current economic situation, investment activity becomes particularly important. We need to interpret events, regain control of the situation, make tough decisions, and direct our employees to respond to the rapidly developing pandemic. It is a good time, firstly, to set up internal business processes more efficiently, to digitize and automate work with investors in order to reduce bureaucracy, and secondly, it is a good time for legislative activity. Also, there is a time to study the world's best investment experience of our colleagues in order to implement it in Tatarstan.
In the context of globalization and depolarization of the world economy, Tatarstan is a territory with a favorable business atmosphere, where cooperation with participants in foreign economic and investment activities flourishes. It is no coincidence that the government of the Republic of Tatarstan pays great attention to creating conditions for comfortable business, which is an extremely important competitive advantage in the fight for an investor.
Tatarstan hosted a series of anti-crisis online conferences for entrepreneurs. The project is aimed at interaction on problematic issues with state authorities and providing expert support to businesses.
The main problems on the current activities of investors in connection with the COVID-19 – are a difficulty with payment of rent, wage in terms of production downtime, increase the cost of foreign equipment in connection with exchange rate differences, the drop in demand for products, the problem of purchasing the required list of personal protective equipment, delayed payments from customers, the increased cost of components, reduce inventory, increase the cost of production, increase in terms of obtaining a loan to finance the investment project, limiting travel.
There are clearly aspects of attracting investors that require personal presence: registration of a legal entity, technical expertise of the territory, raw materials, and resources, as well as discussion of key confidential issues with the government and stakeholders, such as local customers and suppliers.
– Has the Agency's work been modified in response to the pandemic?
In the context of the spread of coronavirus in remote mode, there were also those events that are traditionally held in an offline format. On June 2, 2020, a meeting of the Investors Club of the Republic of Tatarstan was held – one of the key platforms for dialogue between business representatives and Republican government structures on the most pressing issues of implementing new investment projects in Tatarstan.
Unfortunately, not all of our major events can be easily converted to an online format. I am now talking about the largest platform for interaction with the countries of the Islamic world – the International economic summit "Russia- Islamic world: KazanSummit". However, as part of the year-round business program of the summit, the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency launched a series of interviews with Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member countries. Another event that reveals the topics of the summit was the webinar on financial literacy "Financial education: investments according to Sharia". The program of the event was intended for a wide audience – both for novice investors and experienced market representatives. Participants were able to get information about the latest trends in the world of investment, about the investment tools allowed by Sharia, as well as get acquainted with the possibilities of investing in the Lale Open-ended mutual Fund. Also, many working aspects have been translated into the remote format. For example, interagency meetings are now held via videoconference, which makes our work much easier.
In total, the Investment Development Agency of the Republic organized and participated in 36 online events held during the pandemic.
Due to the coronavirus, investors and delegations from some foreign countries were still unable to reach Tatarstan. Among these delegations are Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, German and Dutch.
Although this does not indicate that our interaction with partners from these countries has stopped. For example, on June 29, an online business mission of German businessmen was held in cooperation with the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of German companies in Russia and provides support to Russian companies in connection with their cooperation with German companies – both in Russia and in Germany. As part of the business program of the event, an online conference "Opportunities for cooperation between Russia and Germany in the chemical and petrochemical industries" was held. The study of economic and investment features of the region and negotiations with Tatarstan enterprises are underway.
In order to promote the investment potential of the Republic of Tatarstan and cooperation with Shandong province of People's Republic of China Tatarstan Investment Development Agency jointly with the Office of Foreign Affairs of Shandong province organized an online business mission of Chinese companies of Shandong province in the Republic of Tatarstan.
– At the end of August 2020, the launch of the intellectual business space "100% Tatarstan" will take place. What are the pros and cons of such an innovative project?
– The world situation dictates new formats of work. Most of the events in 2020 have been canceled or moved online. In order to achieve a synergistic effect of all online events in the Republic, the government of the Republic of Tatarstan decided to organize the"100% Tatarstan" intellectual business space in the leading areas of Tatarstan during the celebration of the Republic of Tatarstan Day on the site of 100tatarstan.com.
The event starts on August 30. 12 days of diverse and unique content await us. Today, Tatarstan is 100% made up of different ingredients for each of us. But we have chosen the most promising industries. Unfortunately, the global situation has developed in such a way that not all international speakers can be invited in person. That's why we use a live broadcast. Some Federal experts had the opportunity to visit our Republic on certain days, so we recorded this site. Some sessions will be held in the live format.
We might not have done this online event, but this kind of event will unite both our population and experts, allow us to hold discussions on a number of pressing issues, and thus develop certain solutions. We will be able to talk about the pros and cons only after this event is over.
– How will the teamwork for such a large-scale digital event be organized? What difficulties did you have to face during preparations?
– Despite the fact that the preparation of an event of this scale consumes a lot of resources, not only temporary, but also human, the Tatarstan team under the leadership of Rustam Minnikhanov continues to work actively offline - quickly and promptly solves issues. We want to show how much Tatarstan is a leading region today. It is important for us to provide high-quality and interesting content to our viewers, as well as to hear suggestions.
The difficulty today is that we connect speakers from different countries and sometimes it is quite difficult to agree due to different time zones. You can see the result of our hard work from August 30 to September 10 on the official website of the event 100tatarstan.com.
- Tell us more about the event program. What areas will be covered? What formats of interaction with the audience are planned?
– One-of-a-kind two-week event platform is a synergy of business intensive for professional development and space for exchange of experience, search for investors and like-minded people. "100% Tatarstan" is a communication platform that unites citizens, business representatives, authorities and leading experts who will openly discuss key topics of further strategic development of Tatarstan.
The forum program includes more than 300 sessions in 21 areas – such as IT industry, education, medicine, agriculture, tourism, circular economy, investment and entrepreneurship, biotechnology, youth policy, international cooperation, industry, sports, transport, social block, security, media, construction, ecology, culture, "engaged leader" and the history of territories. The event will include panel discussions, online meetups, broadcasts of opinion leaders and bloggers, and interviews with experts.
Participants from all over the world will be able to connect to the broadcast absolutely for free on www.100tatarstan.com. The business program will also be available in simultaneous translation into English and Tatar. The continuous operation of the online studio will allow registered users to ask questions to experts in a special chat on the site and quickly get answers in real time!
- Is "100% Tatarstan" a platform for business audience? Or can anyone interested in the region listen to the lectures?
– First of all, our audience is Tatarstan citizens, because everything the government does in Tatarstan is aimed at improving the quality of life of the population. And, of course, this is a platform for experts and our partners, including those from other regions of the Russian Federation and abroad. For example, many entrepreneurs and investors want to know what projects they can participate in (from those that are implemented on our territory), and we can also tell you about these opportunities. The event will feature presentations by the management of Tatneft, TAIF, KAMAZ, Kazan helicopter plant and other major companies. There also will be interviews with the State Adviser of Republic of Tatarstan Mintimer Sharipovich Shaimiev, Chairman of State Council of Tatarstan Farid Khairulovich Mukhametshin. On August 30, the event will be opened by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Alexey Valeryevich Pesoshin and on 10 September we are completing the event with final meeting with participation of Tatarstan President Rustam Nurgalievich Minnikhanov.
– What are the main directions you see for work in the next 10-15 years?
– In Tatarstan adopted a Strategy for socio-economic development of the Republic of Tatarstan till 2030, which has the force of law of the Republic (Law of the Republic of Tatarstan from June 17, 2015 No. 40-ZRT "On approval of strategy of social-economic development of the Republic of Tatarstan till 2030"). This is a serious document that was created with the help of international experts. The most important thing is to improve the quality of life of the population.
The strategy looks at a person in three ways. The first is human health: health care system, disease prevention. Sports, ecology – what we breathe, food – what we eat. The second is the comfort of life. This includes landscaping, accessibility and comfort of transport, housing and other important infrastructure.
The third aspect is the economy. Every person, taking into account the development of technology, wants to be in demand and useful. Therefore, most of it is devoted to the development of the digital economy. This also includes the education system,which is going through a very difficult time even in the global context. The world is changing so fast.
One of the priorities of the Strategy is the formation of a new efficient economy based on knowledge, the development of innovative activities and high-tech sectors of the economy. Economic policy is considered, first of all, as creating conditions in which a person – a carrier of talents – can be realized. This is an important focus in innovation, investment, and cluster policy.
Priority investment sectors (according to the Strategy 2030) are petrochemical complex, power complex; complex engineering and other manufacturing industry; agricultural sector; infrastructure sector; range of services.
A strategy is not just a declaration. It has an approved action plan, deadlines, responsible authorities, and digitized indicators. A key role in the development of the economy is allocated to private investment. The task of the state is to help the private investor make a choice in favor of investment. The Investment Development Agency is an executive body responsible for attracting private investment. We have a lot of fruitful work to do to achieve the indicators set out in the Strategy. Thus, by 2030, the share of the Republic of Tatarstan in total Russian investments in fixed assets should be 6.4 %. The number of attracted foreign investments in the Republic of Tatarstan until 2030 is 5.7 billion US dollars. The strategy reflects the development of Tatarstan and sets a vector for the development of Russia as a whole, with people at its center.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: TIDA
Based on materials from TASS