Logistics centre of Sviyazhsk under supervision of team headed by Timur Shagivaleyev

They thought, thought again and finally devised…

As Realnoe Vremya knew, the largest logistics centre of Tatarstan – multimodal logistics centre of Sviyazhsk – is being given to Alabuga SEZ being its second site.

Guzel Khasbiullina, the head of the Industry and Human Resources Department of the Committee on Economic Development, was the first person who stated it her speech in the Christmas summit dedicated to the results of the property market (Editor's Note: including warehouse property). 'It is supposed that the main part of the organizations working on the territory of the inland port will be transferred to the recently opened multimodal logistics centre of Sviyazhsk. Tatflot has already started the work and has a master plan on how to transfer all productive capacities till 2018. It is assumed that the multimodal logistics centre of Sviyazhsk will obtain the status of the special economic zone with attachment to Alabuga SEZ,' she said.

Andrey Yegorov, the Deputy Minister of Transport and Roads of the Republic of Tatarstan, confirmed the information to Realnoe Vremya. However, he noted that the final decision will be made by the authority of the republic. Another high-ranking source in the government said to Realnoe Vremya the decision has already been made. According to this source, the decision is conditioned by the fact that Alabuga is an industrial zone that needs a quality logistics.

Alabuga received the request of Realnoe Vremyabut gave no answer.

Multimodal logistics centre will be under supervision of Timur Shagivaleyev's team. Photo: tatarstan.ru

One resident and a SEZ

It may be noted that the logic of the last events concerning the logistics centre of Sviyazhsk tells that the project will have a new supervisor soon.

The opening ceremony of the site of Sviyazhsk took place on 3 December. It was announced the total amount of investments made 8bn rubles, 6,5bn of them belong to the funds of the federal budget and the rest – to the budget of the republic. The money went for hydraulic fill of the territory and electricity supply of the site, construction of the wharf with the possibility of receipt of any cargo ships, industrial spurs, a motorway with an interchange connecting the multimodal logistics centre of Sviyazhsk with the Volga M-7 federal trunk road. But the relationships between the residents and Sviyazhsk are not good. It was obvious that Tatflot was the only one. The latter is controlled by Ravil Ziganshin, deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan and director of the Kazan Production and Construction Enterprise, the company- contractor of the logistics centre. At that time, these sources of Realnoe Vremya informed that the operator of one of the SEZ of Tatarstan might be called the second conditional resident.

On 15 December, Rostransmodernizatsia (Russian Transport Modernization) started the process on the transfer of the multimodal logistics centre to the ownership of Tatarstan. There were signed investment agreements with private investors.

In the Ministry of Transport and Roads, it was said that the transfer of the centre to the ownership of the republic was necessary for the creation of the operator and the organization of the single property management of the centre. Now it is clear who is going to be the operator.

The opening ceremony of the site of Sviyazhsk took place on 3 December. Photo: mindortrans.tatarstan.ru

How the three zones almost disappeared

Here it can be recalled that the authority of Tatarstan wanted to make the project of Sviyazhsk special economic zone since 2012. Tatarstan is already the only region with two SEZs. In September, Minnikhanov in his speech entrusted the task to speed up the work on the creation of the third zone in the multimodal centre of Sviyazhsk.

Earlier it was supposed that the multimodal logistics centre of Sviyazhsk would be attached to the Innopolis SEZ (Realnoe Vremya wrote about it), which is closely situated unlike Alabuga. As the Minister explained, so it will be more effective to attract funds for their infrastructure and count on co-financing on the federal programme of development of the special economic zone. He said the matter of the specialization of the zones is not important owing to the fact that the federal centre declared its intention to cancel the obligatory division of the zones into types.

No luck with residents

Generally speaking, the project was not very successful. The idea had been existing for a long time, from the beginning of the 1990s. There were elaborated different variants, strategies, and investigations were ordered. And only in 2006 the project was included in the Federal Targeted Programme called Modernization of Transport System of Russia for 2006-2010 and Development of Transport System of Russia for 2010-2015. And the work began in 2007. Located in the intersection of rail, water and motor ways, the multimodal logistics centre, according to the authority's plan, is one of the key points on the way from Europe to Western China. If the plans on the creation of the alternative route for delivery of freights bypassing Russia that belong to China, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, undoubtedly, don't prevent it.

Tatflot is going to transfer the cargo port from Kazam to the multimodal logistics centre. Photo: sktatflot.ru

As Realnoe Vremya had informed, 'Tatflot' would be the first investor-resident of the centre: the company expressed its intention to transfer the cargo port from Kazan. It had been said that Transcontainer (a unit of Russian Railways) and Sovfracht would be possible participants of the project. The latter left the project, but rumour has it that it was because of change of the property owners. Created especially for the project, Sovfracht CJSC now is on the stage of liquidation. But it seems that 'Transcontainer' is not getting on.

All the time the authority of Tatarstan looked for residents of the project. Ziya Magomedov's Summa was proposed for this role. At the end of April 2015, within the scope of an exhibition called TransRussia-2015, Timur Azhimov, a young deputy head of the Ministry of Transport and Roads of the Republic of Tatarstan, had negotiations on possibility of cooperation between Bronka Multipurpose Transshipment Complex (Bolshoy port, Saint Petersburg) and the logistics centre of Sviyazhsk 'in the sphere of provision of the high-effective logistics of container freight'.

Rustam Minnikhanov personally joined the search for anchors for the logistics hub of Tatarstan. According to a source close to the construction, a number of Turkish companies were offered to be residents. On 18 November the President met with Vahit Yildirim, a representative of Gebze industrial zone. Minnikhanov offered to consider the project of the multimodal logistics centre. Minnikhanov and Yildirim came to an agreement on the creation of a working group for preparation of the future project. The attack on the Russian Su-24 on 24 November, which led to a crisis in the relationships between these countries, thwarted the plans.

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  Vadim Khomenko corresponding member of the Academy of Science, Doctor of Economic Sciences, professor of KNITU-KAI (Kazan National Research Technical University)

  The site is, first of all, logistic, how it is called in the system of state programmes. This is why the site appeared near water: there is a combination of river routes and motorways. The project cannot die for the reason that it is included in the system of state programmes. As for the industry, it is not logical to change one for another. Another issue is that the site is able to produce over 12m tonnes of freights and it needs the industrial site because the process of industrial conversion of cargoes. Such multimodal centres are situated close to the industrial sites they offer corresponding services to. And the substitution of one project for another is not logical. I see fewer links with Innopolis. It is an innovative site aimed at the creation of new projects, while the centre deals with transport and logistic services.It explains why the centre and the industrial site of Yelabuga have more in common than the centre and Innopolis concerning maintenance. Although the remoteness and different profiles make think of the development perspectives of the project. We will see how things stand. In the region of Tatarstan there are three transport corridors: 'North-South', new corridor'Europe-Western China' and 'West-East'. Such a unique intersection of transport corridors gives an opportunity to carry this project out. If something goes wrong, it doesn't mean that the idea is not logical. The cancellation of the Chinese 'Silk Road' is a consequence of that Russia didn't meet its assumed responsibilities. The same situation happens the 'North-South' corridor, which is a transit traffic between western countries and India, a passage through Russia, mixed route 'river-sea' through Iran and India. This large project has practically not been realized, many engineering problems have not been solved. The situation of the corridors 'Europe-Western China' and Transsib is similar. China needs a land exit. So they draw new trunk roads to the south to provide the transport of its goods bypassing Russia for the exit to Southern Europe. But for going to the Northern Europe Russia cannot be substituted. Consequently, they need to speed up because we lose partners. It demonstrates why the cancellation of the route to China is a threat for the multimodal logistics centre. But the project won't disappear, geography cannot be crossed out. And even if we slow down, anyway, Chine needs Russia but at the same time it looking for other ways.

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  Ayrat Gizzatullin director general of 'Khimgrad' technological centre

  I think the result of work of 'Alabuga' SEZ influenced our choice because it is one of the most effective sites. Logistics centres, above all, connected with industry while Innopolis mostly orients to technological projects. I have no doubts the project will be successful. The principal plus is that it has a favourable geographical location. What is more, there are inland port and railways. Experienced management is the only thing it lacks. There was not an active attraction of residents, though much money was invested. On the other side, earlier the goals were different – attraction of federal funds, and there was no point to attract residents without prepared infrastructure. The idea of the creation of multimodal centres is a decision of internal logistic problems. The second moment is connected with issues on 'Silk Road' are politically and economically substantiated. A direct competence between these projects is not to be found.