Rustam Minnikhanov: "Kazan has all chances to become the territory of the smart economy"

(Kazan City KZN.RU, February 26, Zilya Gayfi, Kseniya Shvetsova). Kazan has to be the best city in Russia for quality of life. Last year the capital of Tatarstan has maintained strong performance in key sectors: the volume of shipped products, the pace of urban construction, and the number of completed dwellings. To maintain the leading indicators Kazan needs to be a smart area of ​​the economy, it is necessary to use the potential of industrial areas of "Smart City" and "Innopolis" created near the city. Such goals for Kazan were outlined by President Rustam Minnikhanov today at the meeting of Kazan City Duma session in the City Hall of the capital of Tatarstan.

The Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin was the main speaker at the meeting. He noted that in the capital of Tatarstan the main economic indicators show steady growth in the end of last year. Achieving this is possible not only thanks to the coordinated work of the city and republican authorities, but also thanks to the growing awareness of citizens.

"The past year cannot routinely be called successful or just difficult. The foreign policy situation, the unstable economic situation in the world affected all the processes taking place in the city. But the effectiveness of our team headed by the President of the Republic, the activity of our citizens have allowed to move forward in many respects this year. Our response to changes is not waiting and apathy, but increase in activity", - I. Metshin said.

Mayor of Kazan said that there is relatively calm situation in the labor market in the capital of Tatarstan compared to many other cities. As it was stressed in the report of the head of the city, the unemployment rate over the past year has increased slightly - by 0.79% and 2014 was marked by record low unemployment. At present 4817 unemployed registered in the city. This year in Kazan work will to provide employment continues. The world championship of working professions «WorldSkills» will be the impetus for the development of workers' job market.

Rustam Minnikhanov called the preparations for the championship of working professions in 2019 as a key challenge for the coming years, for it an exhibition complex to be built, an infrastructure to be created. Kazan must show all the available power, Tatarstan President said.

Kazan has a serious scientific school of higher education institutions, aimed at the training of specialists in different areas of production - from the petrochemical industry to the aircraft, I. Metshin continued his report. Therefore, according to the head of the city, we need to develop a network of outsourcing companies of small businesses, which are able to take over the engineering, processing of secondary raw materials, consumer goods, and all that is associated with the production process - from financial audit to room cleaning.

Small and medium businesses are making a huge contribution to the development of the city and in the whole republic in general. Last year was not the easiest for the whole country, and, as noted by the Mayor, has become a test of strength for small businesses; and Kazan entrepreneurs have passed this test. In the past year the situation in the field of SMB has not changed much, and tax deductions in Kazan budget increased to 18.2% in 2015, the total amounted to almost 1.8 billion rubles. Total about 58 thousand small and medium-sized enterprises registered in the city, of which 28.2 thousand - small enterprises, 174 - medium-sized enterprises, 29.7 thousand - individual entrepreneurs.

"Today small business in Kazan are a third of gross territorial product, a third of the total working population of the city and almost a fifth of all tax revenues of the city budget", - said I. Metshin and added that the interaction with the business was conducted and is conducted in two main vectors. The first direction is the support of entrepreneurship. Program to support SMB, operating in the city, contributes to the development of entrepreneurship. Last year the parameters of the city program of preferential crediting of small business have been adjusted. Twice - from 5 to 10% - the compensation of the interest rate, subsidized from the budget of Kazan, has increased, and the loan period increased from 2 to 3 years. The rate became 10% lower than the market. According to the city program of concessional lending in 2015, 46 loan applications were approved on a competitive basis from employers totaling 182 million rubles. In general, since the beginning of the program in 2007, 362 companies from Kazan received preferential loans amounting to over 1 billion rubles.

Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that Kazan experience to support small and medium businesses need to be replicated in the entire republic. At the same time, according to the head of RT, the share of small and medium businesses, equal to 37%, is significantly lower than the existing potential of the capital.

Another important direction of supporting of SMB in Kazan is working to improve urban quality of the business environment. Kazan became one of the first Russian cities that have introduced regulatory impact on assessment procedure. Today every document, received by the local authorities of the city and affecting the conduct of business, is considered together with the entrepreneurs. Potential problems are identified in discussing.

The Mayor recalled that this year the program of support for SMB is planned to be improved, adding new support measures. For example, it is proposed to enter "rent holidays" for Kazan business, to improve the conditions for granting of preferential lending and other.

Selection of priority sectors is among the new measures of support, it includes, first of all, tourism. In general, the industry demonstrates an unprecedented pace of development in Kazan economy, the capital of Tatarstan, as I. Metshin said, is becoming a tourist Mecca of Russia. In 2015 the city was visited by a record 2.1 million people, which is 20% more than in 2014 year, the number of foreign tourists amounted to 97.5 thousand people. In the period since 2006 the flow of tourists grew by 3.5 times. "Today tourism is one of the main sectors of the urban economy; it finally emerged from the shadows and has ceased to be subordinate, - said Mayor. - Kazan has managed to achieve a new image - an open, modern, welcoming, safe, comfortable city". Of course, such performance has been achieved through various city events, such as the All-Russian Festival of Ballet studios schools of Alla Duchova "Todes", Argentine Tango Festival, a charity choral festival "Choral Kazan", International Art Exhibition «United Buddy Bears», “Kazan Bike Night” and many others. According to I. Metshin, this year it is planned to hold not only the traditional event, but also new ones - for example, the festival of craft "Kazan cat".

"Despite all the difficulties, Kazan is undisputed leader on many fronts. It is the merit of the leadership of our republic headed by our President, the merit of all our colleagues, industrial plants, our labor collectives. The past year has been eventful. We had a decent World Cup in water sports, won the right to host the championship of working professions. We won in the main: our citizens are convinced that our city can and should be even better, comfortable, and well-maintained. Kazan residents are the people with active position, and together we will change the city for the better ", - I. Metshin concluded.