Round table dedicated to the discussion of the automotive component industry strategy development was held in the Federation Council
The event was moderated by Konstantin Dolgov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy and Sergey Kalashnik, a member of the Federation Council Committee.
The discussion was attended by: Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Alexander Morozov, Vice-President for External Relations and Interaction with Shareholders of AVTOVAZ JSC Alexey Gromak, Acting Minister of Industry and Trade of the Samara Region Andrey Shamin, Director for Relations with state Bodies of GAZ Group Management Company LLC Alexander Zharkov, General Director of the Machine-building Association Cluster of Automotive Industry Andrey Kraynov, representatives of the Accounts Chamber of Russia, members of the executive authorities and the expert community.
Konstantin Dolgov noted that the automotive industry is an important sector of innovative and technological development of the national economy. However, members of the professional community noticed the insufficiency of the implemented incentive measures to support the industry. "The Federation Council also receives appeals from foreign car manufacturers about the inability to meet the requirements for the level of production localization, established without taking into account the specifics of the vehicles production for various segments of the automotive market, as well as unequal conditions for compensation of the recycling fee for car manufacturers."
The senator said that the lack of clear rules and changes forecast in working conditions in the automotive market, as well as reasonable transition periods when setting new requirements, lead to the business destabilization and the need for a radical revision of the foreign automakers investment plans. The current situation may lead to a reducing competitive pressure in the automotive market and a gradual foreign production closure.
Alexander Morozov presented the program of grants for automotive components, which was developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade jointly with the Industrial Development Fund. The federal budget provides 1 billion rubles for this purpose this year.
The grant program for the automotive component industry provides the possibility of co-financing from the budget up to 40% of all necessary investments in the project to create mass production of vehicle components and assemblies. The Industry Development Fund will provide a preferential loan for the project in the amount of 50 million rubles at 1% per annum. If the project is implemented on time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will issue a subsidy to the company to repay the loan.
Andrey Kraynov, on behalf of the Cluster members that are mostly automotive components manufacturers, supported the initiative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the grant program and expressed hope that, considering the capacity and industry importance there will be a gradual increase in its funding in the future.
During the discussion, there was noted the experience of the local suppliers development in the Samara region. For example, in 2018 the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance together with the Cluster of Automotive Industry and the Government of the Samara Region launched a project to develop suppliers conducting special training and providing consulting support for its subsequent inclusion in the Alliance panel. The result of the joint work: suppliers met the Alliance requirements, some companies were included in the Alliance supplier panel, sending RFI/RFQ (requests for proposals) to suppliers, suppliers took part in tenders for projects of the new Alliance platform, saving jobs and suppliers’ turnover increase.
It is important to share the experience of the Samara Region to other regions with a developed automotive industry. It is assumed that this project will receive federal status and government support. Today, VOLKSWAGEN Group Rus, PCMA Rus, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus and other automakers are ready to join the project.
The round table participants discussed main support issues of domestic automotive components production, stimulating its export, as well as creating a domestic electronic component base, introducing Russian products of the radio-electronic industry into the domestic automotive industry.
More information at the website: Federation Council