RUSSIAN AUTO INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT WAS DISCUSSED IN DIMITROVGRAD

On Tuesday, October 18, Governor of Ulyanovsk Oblast Aleksey Russkikh, General Director of KAMAZ PTC Sergey Kogogin, President of JSC AVTOVAZ Maksim Sokolov, and General Director of OAT Group Firdaus Kabirov met on the territory of Dimitrovgrad industrial site of OAT Group, part of KAMAZ.

During the meeting devoted to the development of automotive enterprises, burning issues of the further development of Dimitrovgrad industrial site, cooperation and logistics projects, HR programs meant for workers of the auto industry were discussed.

'More than 400 enterprises of the region work in the auto industry, half of them are located in Dimitrovgrad. It is important for us to load them with orders - their stable work and, hence, the citizens' welfare depend on this. Today we have agreed that the format of procurement sessions will become annual. For cooperation development, our region will conclude an agreement on cooperation with the KAMAZ Procurement Centre and the Directorate of Purchase of AVTOVAZ. We have discussed our joint plans to develop the site of DAAZ. We continue developing the infrastructure and load DIP Master. Another DAAZ development project is to establish the DAAZ AVTOKOMPLEKT industrial and technological park. An agreement was reached to promote this project. DIP Master's experience showed that the sites are highly demanded by the residents. I'm sure that our partners, in particular, KAMAZ PTC, will be interested in the investment into the new industrial and technological park. This means not only new competences, but also workplaces for citizens of Dimitrovgrad,' told Governor of Ulyanovsk Oblast Aleksey Russkikh.

General Director of KAMAZ PTC Sergey Kogogin noted the importance and timeliness of the support rendered by the authorities of Ulyanovsk Oblast to the auto industry. It should be recalled that subsidies from the regional budget were allocated to three enterprises of OAT Group - OOO DAAZ, OOO Avtosvet, OOO Dimitrovgrad Powder Metallurgy Plant. This helped save workforce, and also return to a five-day working schedule.

President of JSC AVTOVAZ Maksim Sokolov confirmed that JSC AVTOVAZ was interested in the development of the Dimitrovgrad site as one of the key suppliers of auto components. To add to this, according to him, it is important to maintain the workforce capacity of engineering enterprises. 'This relates to Tatarstan's organizations as well, in the first run, KAMAZ, and Avtovaz, and here in Ulyanovsk Oblast. This is a venue for joining our efforts, from the point of view of training of young workers, work with specialized secondary schools, general educational programs and approaches to recruitment of high-potential employees,' underlined Maksim Sokolov.

General Director of OAT Group Firdaus Kabirov noted that DAAZ was focused on the further development. 'Thanks to support, we managed to save our staff, and now the enterprise is ready to master new products,' stressed Firdaus Kabirov.

All participants of the meeting noted it was important to work as a team: a priority is on an increase in production capacity, production modernization and mastering of new products at enterprises of the automobile industry.