Aleksey Pesoshin: Investment attractiveness is one of the main indicators of the economic, political and social development of the region

On December 27, Tatarstan Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin took part in a meeting of Tatarstan Investment Development Agency to sum up the results of work and set tasks for 2018.

Summing up the work of the agency, Head of Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Taliya Minullina reported that the investment in fixed assets is estimated to make 677 billion roubles. "Internal funds of local enterprise make 59 per cent in the structure of investments in fixed assets. That means that even in difficult economic conditions, Tatarstan enterprises continue to implement investment programmes. Forty-one per cent accounts for external funds," she said.

This year, the most investment was attracted to the processing industry, the agriculture sector and construction.

Three years ago, more than 70 per cent of all foreign investments came from Turkey. This year, this share fell to 30 per cent, which has caused by a number of factors. "However, this year Turkey has ranked first among countries investing to Tatarstan,” Minullina stressed.

According to Minullina,  during the past three years, the geography of investments has been significantly expanded to include projects and capital from South Korea, Japan and the UAE for the first time.

The effectiveness of work to improve the investment climate is confirmed by the fact that Tatarstan has topped the national rating of investment attractiveness of the regions for the third year in a row.

Speaking at the meeting, Pesoshin noted that, despite the current geopolitical situation, which affects the investment activity, Tatarstan has maintained partner relations with foreign investors.

"We need to effectively manage internal reserves, to make every efforts so that investors choose our republic. For this purpose, active work is underway in Tatarstan to develop modern industrial sites. These are special economic zones, 9 industrial parks, 9 technoparks, 63 industrial sites of the municipal level,” he said.

However, the infrastructure without real investors and residents is a waste of money, Pesoshin underlined: "We work individually with every potential investor, quickly solving any emerging issues and problems."

According to him, a mechanism of public-private partnership can become a possible instrument for financing potential projects. We are not using this mechanism of interaction with investors to its potential in the republic, he admitted.

The annual International Economic Forum "Russia-Islamic World: KazanSummit" organized by Tatarstan Investment Development Agency has become one of the key venues for attracting foreign investments. "One of the tasks for us is to find and create the necessary conditions for introducing the principles of partner banking into the practice of traditional financial institutions," Pesoshin added. "Given that the Islamic investment in the context of international economic relations will be the main topic of KazanSummit - 2018, I ask you to pay special attention to this area."

At the end of the meeting, a number of cooperation agreements between the Agency and various companies were signed.