Rustam Minnikhanov holds meeting with Chinese journalists

12 September 2017, Tuesday

On September 12, in the Government House of the republic, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov had a meeting with Chinese journalists. Chairman of the regional State Committee on Tourism Sergey Ivanov took part in the meeting.

In his welcoming speech Minnikhanov noted that Tatarstan attaches great importance to increasing all-round contacts with China. “We are learning from your experience in a number of areas, particularly with regard to business support and establishment of industrial sites. This work is systematic,” Tatarstan President said.

Minnikhanov stressed that Tatarstan is interested in developing all possible areas of cooperation with China, including trade and economic relations, educational programmes, experience in the digital economy, etc. Today, China is a world leader in a number modern spheres, Tatarstan President said. In its turn Tatarstan has promising sites for attracting Chinese investors to Russia. "We are ready to create good conditions, provide the required infrastructure, and train personnel so that an investor can develop dynamically. Our republic should be a window for the Chinese business to enter the Russian market,” Minnikhanov said.

According to Minnikhanov, tourism is one of the important and interesting areas of cooperation. "Tatarstan is a region with beautiful natural resources and historical and cultural sights. We have three sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. We already have experience of interaction with Chinese travel agencies," he continued.

He noted that today Tatarstan takes an active part in the implementation of a number of major infrastructure projects, particularly in the construction of Europe - Western China road corridor and Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway, which should run to Beijing in the long term.

"First of all, we need to get tourists interested in various historical, cultural, and natural facilities. But the availability of a convenient transport infrastructure is important. We have well-developed aviation services, but at the same time, tourists, especially Chinese tourists, like to move between cities, for example, Saint-Petersburg - Moscow - Kazan. With a high-speed train, which can get you from the center of Kazan to the center of Moscow in three hours, the tourist attractiveness of our region will be greatly increased," Tatarstan President said.

One of the journalists asked Minnikhanov about the experience of Tatarstan's cooperation with the Chinese Haier Company, which launched its first plant in Russia in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny last year. Tatarstan President stressed that Haier is a world leader in the production of household appliances, having a full range of products that are in demand far beyond China. "The presence of such a large and serious company in the republic is a serious signal for other foreign investors. This shows the attractiveness of our region. I think this is a great responsibility for us. The first factory for the production of refrigerators was launched. Today, we are discussing a number of other projects with Haier Company,” Minnikhanov said.

Tatarstan President also commented on the preparation of Kazan for matches of the FIFA World Cup to be held in 2018. "This is a major international event, which is as spectacular as the Olympic Games. Several matches of the championship will be held in the capital of our republic. Today all the preparatory activities are underway according to the plan. We already have a lot of experience in holding such events. For example, Kazan hosted the Universiade in 2013 and FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017. We look forward to seeing you next year in Kazan,” he added.

SUBSCRIBE FOR NEWS
All content on this site is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International