Tatarstan has all the infrastructure for investors: come and work
The past year has brought not only changes, but also opportunities
The main goal of implementing investment projects in Tatarstan is a decent standard of living for our citizens, new jobs, new infrastructure, roads, quality products and services. All this is impossible without a sustainable economy, without investment.
The past year has brought major investment changes due to the replacement of players in the market. These are both trading companies and manufacturing companies. Entrepreneurs implementing investment projects had to revise technological processes, urgently replace suppliers, and work on parallel imports. On the other hand, a good opportunity has arisen to occupy vacated niches in the market, including by purchasing an existing business.
Russian owners appeared among the Finnish Huhtamäki and YIT, the American companies McDonald's and Ford, the French Schneider Electric and Societe Generale. At the same time, all companies with new owners in the republic are not only actively working, but also implementing or planning to implement investment projects. Existing investors in Tatarstan continue to increase capitalization in 2022. For example, Hyer, Drylock Technologies, Hayat Kimya, Sunrise Capital.
Tatarstan has always had a multi-vector orientation regarding the development of international cooperation.
In the past year, the United Arab Emirates became the leader in investments for the first time, but this is not yet an indicative trend, because these are mainly investments in the large project of the Aurus plant. From other OIC countries, investments came from Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and CIS countries. Taking into account the fall in investment from unfriendly countries last year, the volume of investment from friendly countries increased to 42% of the total, but in general it is worth noting that it grew in previous years (from 1.8% in 2019 to 10.8% in 2021).
It must be said that Tatarstan has always had a multi-vector orientation in terms of the development of international cooperation. We worked quite closely, on instructions from the President of Russia, and previously worked in the direction of the strategic vision group “Russia - Islamic World”, headed by Rais of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. In addition, the platform for the international economic forum “Russia - Islamic World” appeared 14 years ago. Over the next 3 years, the international atmosphere favors the development of Russia’s relations with the states of the Islamic world.
How Tatarstan attracts investment
All the necessary infrastructure for investors is successfully operating in the republic; as they say, come and work. These are special economic zones, priority development areas, industrial parks and technology parks. We approach each project individually, help with a business plan, search for space, personnel, and lead until the facility is put into operation.
Of course, the agency does not deal with investors alone - in Tatarstan there is a very well-coordinated team: the government, relevant bodies, industry enterprises, municipalities, financial institutions and others. If we are talking about a project in the healthcare sector, we work together with the Ministry of Health, if it is an IT sector, with the Ministry of Digital Development of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Tatarstan.
This approach gives results: investments in fixed capital in organizations not related to small businesses increased by 12.3% and amounted to more than 587 billion rubles. The leading companies in the field of oil production and oil refining are:
25.1% of the volume was attracted for the development of manufacturing industries, including 9.2% of investments aimed at the production of coke and petroleum products;
6.0% of funds were attracted to the production of chemicals and chemical products;
2.6% - for the production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers.
The efforts of the republic are also noticed at the federal level. Thanks to the conditions that we offer to investors during the implementation of their projects in our republic, Tatarstan was among the regions taken as the basis for writing the Investment Standard.
An investment standard must include five elements:
authority responsible for supporting investors;
investment declaration, obligations of the region when implementing investment projects;
investment map with detailed information on the region;
a roadmap for obtaining the necessary infrastructure in a short time;
the investment committee, which approves projects and undertakes their support, supports them.
We do not submit every project to the Investment Council, only the largest and most complex ones, where a huge number of investment entities are involved. In order for the project to take place faster, we take it to the highest level, helping, for example, to obtain land without bidding. AIR does everything to speed up the necessary approval procedures at all levels.
As part of the digitalization work, each investment project with a road map is entered into the “Investment Control of Tatarstan” electronic system. We continue to actively use such a platform as the Investors Club. In addition, the agency regularly analyzes current legislation to determine what initiatives to support investors can be submitted for discussion at the federal level.
Attract, retain and work
Currently, there are 130 concession agreements in force in Tatarstan with a total investment volume of 93.3 billion rubles. PPP projects are most actively implemented in the areas of communal infrastructure, construction of social facilities, and roads.
Today, the largest ongoing project using the PPP mechanism is a concession agreement as part of the Shali (M7 highway) - Bavly (M5 highway) toll road in the Republic of Tatarstan. This agreement was signed on January 11, 2022, the total investment amount is RUB 82.4 billion.
At the regional level, there are currently 12 existing concession agreements with a total investment volume of 89.9 billion rubles. At the municipal level, there are 119 agreements with a total investment volume of 3.4 billion rubles. (including 1 agreement on private partnership), of which 109 are in the housing and communal services sector.
If we look at the situation by district, in 2022 the volume of private investment attracted to the districts of our republic increased by 12.8%. Almetyevsky, Elabuga, Nizhnekamsky districts traditionally remain the leaders.
Among the districts with federal tax benefits, Nizhnekamsk residents have been leading for 5 years. The investment team works systematically in the region, there is an investment council under the head, and investor requests are effectively processed within the established time frame.
Among the districts where there are no federal preferential regimes, Pestrechinsky is the leader. Here, in 2022, the volume of investments increased three times compared to the previous year. The district has built personal work with each investor on a one-stop-shop principle. Regardless of the amount of investment and the field of activity. More than 100 investment projects of various sizes are currently being implemented.
Other areas are also becoming points of attraction for investors. Thus, a significant increase in investment compared to 2021 was shown by Agryzsky district - by 1.7 times, Aksubaevsky, Alkeevsky, Novosheshminsky - by 1.8 times, Apastovsky, Sarmanovsky by 2 times. These are statistical figures; you need to understand that the indicators are directly related to the activity of investors on the ground. Some districts are aimed, for example, only at the development of the agricultural sector and are focused on “nurturing” their own investors.
Every year we compile a rating of the investment attractiveness of municipalities; it shows how they work in this area locally. After all, attracting is one thing, you also need to retain the investor and bring the facility into operation. And then to reinvestment.