Alabuga celebrated 10 years

Today, 5 July, the special economic zone «Alabuga» celebrated the 10th anniversary. The SEZ «Alabuga» is the most effective and largest special economic zone of Russia, whose share accounts for 66% of revenue of country’s regions. The Head of the FTS Mikhail Mishustin, the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin, the Vice-Mayor of Moscow Marat Khusnullin, the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov participated in the ceremony. High efficiency and great potential of SEZ development were noted during the meeting dedicated to results of the decade. The SEZ is planning to increase its annual revenue by 40% until 2019 and get 9 billion dollars of investment from residents to 2026.

The special economic zone of industrial-production type «Alabuga» was created in 2006, becoming one of the first Russian SEZ. Today there are 48 registered resident companies, 22 of the plants operate. 5520 workplaces are organized. The leading international resident companies are: Ford, 3M, Rockwool, Air Liquide, Armstrong and others.

Welcoming participants of the meeting, the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin noted that the transfer of special economic zones to the Russian regions will help to increase the efficiency of the SEZ. In early June the Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to close 10 Russian special economic zones because of their inefficiency. «I hope that the Government will give the SEZ to the regions in the near future — development issues will be easier to solve, and the Russian special economic zones will be more effective. The SEZ „Alabuga“ is a brilliant project with huge benefits for Russia and the Republic of Tatarstan. Moscow is an industrial city, and here, in Elabuga, we are interested to see how one of the most successful Russian special economic zones develops», — Sergey Sobyanin said.

The Head of the FTS of Russia Mikhail Mishustin reminded how the SEZ started to build — he became the Head of the Federal Agency for management of special economic zones in 2006. Mishustin highly appreciated the results done by 10 years: «I came in „Alabuga“ on the second day of my work at the Agency. We came and saw only Elabuga automobile plant. The SEZ residents put 100 billion rubles investment to date, 25 billion rubles is invested by the state, there are 48 existing residents. The institute of special economic zones of the world is older than 30 years. During this time it has showed its efficiency. „Alabuga“ occupies a worthy place among the world’s special zones from the point of efficiency! » - Mikhail Mishustin said.

Marat Khusnullin, the Vice-Mayor of Moscow, reported the story of the SEZ «Alabuga» in Tatarstan: «In 2006 Rustam Nurgalievich and I returned from Naberezhnye Chelny and he offered to stop by Elabuga. We arrived and saw the body of the plant, which was dealt with. Then Rustam Minnikhanov immediately said: «The law on special economic zones has been recently adopted, it is necessary to explore it and understand how to apply it. It was said 10 years ago, and „Alabuga“ was started. Minnikhanov gave1 billion Republican money and instructed to begin to build infrastructure. Then through the work of Michael Mishustin we received Federal financial investments and continued development of the SEZ. Today Moscow intends to encourage development of industrial zones» — Marat Khusnullin said.

Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of Tatarstan, thanked Michael Mishustin and Marat Khusnullin for work in the creation and development of the SEZ and noted the leading position of the «Alabuga» in Russia: «Today the SEZ „Alabuga“ brings 66% of the revenue of all Russian SEZ. Here there is everything needed to attract investors, there is the corporate University. Despite the difficult international political situation, „Alabuga“ implements all options of efficiency. The first 10 years of operation are time of formation. In the next 10 years we must give the result».

Timur Shagivaleev, the CEO of SEZ «Alabuga», discussed the results of the SEZ development for 10 years. «While working the private investors have invested in „Alabuga“ more than 100 billion rubles, the state — more than 25 billion rubles. The ratio of invested private and public funds is 4 to 1, and this allows us to name the SEZ „Alabuga“ is the most effective one in Russia, the state invests more funds into the functioning of SEZ in other areas. In the last 4 years, the SEZ revenue has been growing on average about 40% each year. In 2016 revenue amounted to 937,7 million rubles. We expect that it will exceed 2,66 billion rubles to 2019».

In 2015 the SEZ «Alabuga» recognized as the best European economic zone for large projects according to the magazine fDi («Financial Times»). During the meeting the participants were shown a video message of Courtney Fingar, the chief editor of the magazine. She noted that the SEZ «Alabuga» is worthy to be in the top list for any global company which plans to localize production in Russia. According to Courtney Fingar, the fact that Ford invested additional $ 100 million in «Alabuga» production confirms the strong prospects and quality of the SEZ platform.

Timur Shagivaleev discussed the plans for creation of collaborative Russian-Chinese enterprise on the SEZ platform — the plans were approved by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia and the Ministry of Commerce of China. About 10 billion rubles will be invested in infrastructure; 8 million of workplaces will be created. The future collaborative venture plans to attract 60 residents.

Another project will be the creation of the second platform of SEZ «Alabuga-2» specially for location of refineries and petrochemical manufactures in Nizhnekamsk. The expected volume of investment in the creation of «Alabuga-2» accounts for 316 billion rubles. Residents will process more than 3 800 thousand tons of oil per year, produce 600 thousand tons of ethylene and 300 thousand tons of polyethylene.

The volume of the SEZ residents production for 10 years amounted to 178,6 billion rubles, 13.8 billion rubles of taxes are paid in budgets of all levels by the companies. Tax proceeds will fully recover the investment in the SEZ funds by 2019. The SEZ «Alabuga» plans to increase the number of residents to 120 by 2023. Volume of tax proceeds will increase in 10 times as planned — from 3.2 billion to 32 billion rubles.

The Corporate University «Alabuga» is a new project also planning to develop in The SEZ. Talented young people from all over Russia are trained by the top managers of resident companies who share with them the unique experience. 25 people have attended courses in the first set of Corporate University, the half of them got a job in the SEZ.

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