Tatarstan's Alabuga special economic zone to triple resident count by 2023
KAZAN. Feb 9 (Interfax) - The number of resident companies in the Alabuga special economic zone (SEZ) in Tatarstan will increase to 120 by 2023, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said at a meeting of Alabuga's supervisory board on Monday.
Revenue by that time is forecast to rise to 320 billion rubles, he said.
"If we have normal operations, the actual number could be double that," he said.
The SEZ currently has 42 residents whose declared investment totals 119 billion rubles. At present, investment totals 87 billion rubles and 5,000 jobs have been created. By 2023, Alabuga plans to create 16,000 jobs.
Five new plants were launched in the SEZ last year and eight more will open this year, Minnikhanov said.
The supervisory board examined seven projects that will receive investment totaling 36 billion rubles, including a project from ABC Steel (China) to create a plant to produce polymer-coated galvanized steel. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin by the end of 2016. Investment will total about 3 billion rubles.
Another company, UG Group, plans to build a plant to produce starch products from wheat, and IRE-Polyus plans to organize assembly of production stations using fiber-optic laser.
The board also examined projects from French automotive interior detail maker Faurecia, Russian wall panel maker Wallsaving and Russian-Kazakh automotive component maker Bars Technology.
Turkish Kastamonu, which already has a plant at Alabuga, plans to add a second line with capacity to produce 350,000 tonnes of medium-density fiber board.
All of the companies were recommended to receive resident status and the projects were recommended for expert review by the Economic Development Ministry
Alabuga SEZ was created in 2006 and offers investors ready industrial, engineering, transportation and customs infrastructure as well as a number of tax and customs benefits. Investors have the right to import raw materials, equipment and components without paying duties.
There are 42 resident companies in the SEZ including Ford Sollers , Saint Gobain, Air Liquide, Rockwool, Sisecam and Hayat Group. They produced output worth 33.8 billion rubles in the first 10 months of 2014.
