Business meeting with Alexey Repik, “Business Russia”
Today, the Chairman of the All-Russian public organization “Business Russia” Alexey Repik visited the Investment Development Agency of the Republic of Tatarstan on a business visit. Also present at the meeting were: Midhat Shagiakhmetov - Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Artur Abdulzyanov - Chairman of the Tatarstan regional branch of “Business Russia”.
Midhat Shagiakhmetov noted in his welcoming speech that a lot has been done regarding the Regional Investment Standard: we have received recommendations and feedback from business, reviewed and updated the investment declaration of the republic: “It is very important that the people who in the republic are responsible for creating appropriate conditions for our investors felt personal responsibility." It is important that the investment declaration specifies the composition of the region’s investment team, so that any investor can contact, ask questions, and, if necessary, give feedback, for example, that this or that element of the RIS is not working to the extent that it should work.
Not a single Investment Council takes place without the participation of Rais RT. It is important that before consideration by the Council, all projects are preliminary considered: problems, tasks, proposals from resource organizations in order to make decisions that will allow businesses to actively implement their projects. “A very important role in this system is assigned to the Investment Development Agency of our republic. Today, within the framework of the national award in the field of investment development of regions, the Agency was awarded a very high rating, and despite this, we are also constantly in dialogue with our colleagues, looking at what other points we can improve together.”
Another very important area within the framework of the implementation of the Regional Investment Standard is a set of investment rules - issues related to connecting to networks, obtaining construction permits, commissioning facilities, electricity, gas, water supply, sewerage, obtaining leases of plots with auctions, no bidding. These issues are being worked out within the framework of the End-to-End Investment Flow project with Rosatom. At the moment, the “Unified Approvals Cabinet” project is being introduced.
Arthur Abdulzyanov: “I want to inform entrepreneurs that the Republic of Tatarstan has indeed confirmed compliance with the requirements of the regional investment standard, we were included in the pilot regions, but nevertheless there is no need to calm down, work must and will continue in the given direction.”
The implementation of RIS allows you to evaluate the work taking into account the best practices that are offered in Russia, as well as receive expert opinion from colleagues from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and business organizations.
At the meeting, Chairman of the All-Russian public organization “Business Russia” Alexey Repik discussed the need to adapt to new changed conditions: “Before this, we faced serious epidemiological challenges, we also remember everything well. And the story about adaptation and the ability to respond to this challenge is now probably a frequent beginning of any conversation, including the head of our state, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, speaking about this, highly appreciating the work, including ours, and the business community in solving or responding to the challenges that have arisen. But personally, from my point of view, now we need to stop talking a little about adaptation, stop talking about the difficulties we have encountered, because it is always easy to explain some of our own stress and shortcomings or procrastination with external factors. We need next year, 2024, it is also the most important year for us, we are electing a president. This year we need to think less about the external background and focus more on solving the tasks that we set for ourselves.”
Repik also noted: “The main thing in business, the main thing in work and the main thing in the economy is a team, these are people and they need to be trained, they need to be raised, they need to be motivated, they need to be preserved, they need to be provided with an appropriate level and quality of life. So that they do not want to look for something else on the side, and in this part the Republic of Tatarstan is a recognized leader. The issue of quality of life, the quality of the urban environment in Kazan and other municipalities is worth choosing the republic. I am sure and already see that here in Tatarstan there are a huge number of directions and blocks that significantly exceed the minimum set of elements that we included in the Reginveststandard.
I would like to point out that the regional investment standard is, let’s say, the necessary minimum. You and I understand that this is still a matter of standardization; there will never be a comprehensive list of wishes or a list of questions and tasks from the business side and ideas that the management of the entity can offer.
A certain element of the philosophy of Japanese culture is close to me. Japan lags quite far behind many countries in terms of innovation, because in their culture, in order to do something new, a person must first, by endlessly repeating what was created before, he must prove his right to create something new, he must confirm that he is already certainly good at the level of his sensei, master, teacher, good in what was invented and done before him and can already offer something of himself and this should be perceived as an idea worthy of respect.
The meeting was then held in question-and-answer mode. Alexey Evgenievich met with business representatives of the Republic, entrepreneurs and businessmen and answered all their questions.