Minister of Economy Farid Abdulganiyev was appointed as Assistant to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan

The appointment of Abdulganiyev was a continuation of a series of effective decisions by President Rustam Minnikhanov, which gave rise to the business sector, which were implemented in just two years. Abdulganiyev came to the post of Minister of Economy a little more than two years ago, having passed the ministerial school of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, where he also successfully implemented a number of the most important tasks for the republic. Market experts have noted increased attention to the development of small businesses in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The appointment of Farid Abdulganiev officially took place on February 21, 2020. As an Assistant to the President, Abdulganiyev will continue to work to further increase the investment potential of Tatarstan, including by attracting new residents, creating commercially efficient industries, as well as increasing the share of the SME sector in the national economy. It is in these areas that the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan under the leadership Abdulganiyev reached its maximum performance.

So, in terms of the number of small and medium-sized enterprises, and currently their number has reached an absolute maximum of 170,419, in 2019 Tatarstan came out on top in the Volga Federal District and fifth in Russia, the share of SMEs in the region’s GRP today is 26.1%, this also the highest indicator in the history of the republic (previously it did not exceed 25.5%). The number of people employed in small business has grown to almost 600 thousand people, which is also an unconditional record. At the same time, as part of a pilot project on introduction of a tax on professional income, Abdulganiyev’s department managed to legalize more than 20% of people employed in the shadow sector of the economy; 62 thousand people were registered as self-employed in Tatarstan in 2019.

As part of implementation of the national project on development of SMEs, the Ministry of Economy of Tatarstan managed to attract 1.6 billion rubles, which was the largest amount allocated to the Russian regions from the federal budget. All indicators of the national project were ahead of schedule exceeded. This concerns, first of all, the provision of state support measures to entrepreneurs in single-industry towns - the planned goals were achieved by 104.7%. The established cooperation with the Single-Industry Towns Development Fund made it possible to launch construction of infrastructure projects worth over 3 billion rubles in Naberezhnye Chelny, Zelenodolsk and Nizhnekamsk.

In addition, the implementation of tasks to expand the access of entrepreneurs to financial measures of state support was proceeding ahead of schedule: the indicator for the number of microloans issued was exceeded by 148%, in terms of financial support with assistance of the Guarantee Fund of the RT - by 193%.

With regard to institutional support for business, a bill is currently being considered by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, which was proposed by Farid Abdulganiyev at the regular Session of the State Council of the Republic, supported by a majority of deputies, which provides for a preferential treatment for entrepreneurs using the simplified tax system (STS) in the field IT. This will create an additional 3,240 jobs and provide the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan with 1.2 billion rubles of additional tax revenue.

The retailers introduced to the market of Tatarstan by Abdulganiyev as a minister are X5 Retail Group, Internet trading operator OZON and Wildberries, pharmaceutical logistics operator Protek, which are among the top 5 leading players in the e-commerce market, are already giving fruit - this is over 12 billion rubles of direct investments and 7,500 new jobs, with “modern” specialties.

The instruction given at the Address of President Rustam Minnikhanov to the State Council on development of the region’s industrial base has been fulfilled: on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the TASSR formation, the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan has increased the number of infrastructure facilities to 100 (80 of which are industrial sites, 20 are industrial parks). It is also worth noting the results on development of the Naberezhnye Chelny TASED: under Farid Abdulganiyev, the territory became one of the leaders in the rating of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. Tatarstan also became a leader among the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of the volume of capital investments made by TASED residents and the new jobs created by them. Last year, a fifth, Mendeleyevsk, was added to the four existing territories of advanced development.

It should also be noted that the number of residents of special economic zones in Tatarstan according to the results of 2019 reached 150. At the same time, the share of SEZ “Alabuga” accounts for half of the revenue of all special economic zones of Russia and about 80% of the revenue of SEZs of industrial-production type. In 2019, the SEZ “Alabuga” once again topped the ranking of the most promising territories for investors, and was also noted in the global ranking of special economic zones of the world Global Free Zones of the Year according to the publication of The Financial Times. The Financial Times also noted the republic in a special analytical report, “Cities and Regions of the Future 2020/2021”. Tatarstan was the first region to represent Russia in this international study. At the end of 2019, the overall investment attractiveness index of Tatarstan increased. In the corresponding rating of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, the republic showed almost the same results as Moscow: the difference was only 0.3 points in the rating. Accordingly, Tatarstan has become a leader among the regions of Russia.

Also, as noted by the Lenta.ru publication, in the ranking of innovative regions of the country “Tatarstan overtook the capital, rising one line up in the development of IT technologies in the economy”, first rising to second place in the final rating.

Farid Abdulganiyev is expected to continue interaction with small and medium enterprises of the republic, operating in various sectors of the economy of Tatarstan.