Andrei Belousov: "Tatarstan has developed due to its three clusters: petrochemistry, automotive industry and Innopolis”

On September 11, speaking at the VIII Samara Interregional Economic Forum, Russian Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov said that petrochemistry, automotive industry and Innopolis are factors of success of Tatarstan.

Earlier in the day, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, who is on a one-day trip to Samara, held a session of heads of committees of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia.

In his report on the regional regional experiences in implementing the cluster approach at the forum, Tatarstan President said that the republic pays much attention to the industrial policy, including various programmes to support innovative industries as well as different privileges and preferences. Moreover, the programme to increase the labour productivity at enterprises was launched, the Strategy for Development of Tatarstan till 2030, with the cluster approach being one of its priorities, is underway.

According to Rustam Minnikhanov, the Kama Innovative Regional Production Cluster, which specializes in oil processing, petrochemicals and automobile production, plays a special role in the development of the republic.

According to the President, Tatarstan takes a lot of efforts to increase the investment attractiveness of the cluster. Thus, the Alabuga International School for children of foreign specialists working in Special Economic Zone “Alabuga” and Kama industrial hub opened on September 5 this year.

Rustam Minnikhanov also informed participants of the forum about the Kama Cluster non-commercial partnership created in 2012 to ensure close relationship between the science, business and government. According to the President, the ultimate goal is to create a globally competitive cluster integrated into the world technology trends.

Tatarstan President proposed to determine the cluster development as a priority area in state and federal target programmes, consider the possibility to refund some taxes resulting from the implementation of innovative projects in clusters and allocate these funds to the creation and development of the cluster infrastructure at the federal level.

Executive Director of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia Ivan Bortnik, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Andrei Ivanov, Acting Governor of Samara region Nikolai Merkushin, Governor of Ulyanovsk region Sergei Morozov, members of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia and experts also attended the forum.