Rustam Minnikhanov: Regions cannot deal with infrastructure problems without federal support

On May 22, at a session “Not wasting a crisis: what (should) we have learned to better manage the global economy?” during St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (May 22-24, 2014), Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that today regions cannot deal with infrastructure problems without federal support.

Dean of the Department of free arts and studies of St. Petersburg State University Aleksey Kudrin, who was the key speaker at the session, asked Rustam Minnikhanov about the use of modern technologies and implementation of major projects in Tatarstan.

Answering the question, Rustam Minnikhanov told about the Association of innovative regions of Russia, which aims to inform federal authorities about problems faced by developing regions. He noted that every region has got certain experience and approaches to solving such tasks, however, it cannot deal with many problems without federal support.

Rustam Minnikhanov continued that federal government supported the idea of cluster development, and mentioned Kama industrial cluster as a positive example.

Moreover, Tatarstan President told about the special economic zone “Alabuga”, and Nizhnekamsk industrial enterprises. He noted that there are 25 resource centres for staff training in the republic.