WorldSkills budget to be recounted in Ministry of Finance by New Year
On the last day of the inspection visit to Kazan, WorldSkills International CEO David Hoey and Director General of the union Young Professionals (WorldSkills Russia) Robert Urazov shared their impressions with Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov of the preparation of Kazan for the 45 th WorldSkills 2019 competition. Meanwhile, the main distributor of money for preparation for WorldSkills has not managed to agree with the Russian Ministry of Finance on the final budget of the competition yet. ''An approximate number will be known by the end of the year,'' Deputy Director General of the Directorate For Sports And Social Projects ANO Emil Gubaidullin told during the press conference after the meeting ended in the Government House.
WorldSkills International: preparation within schedule
If on Thursday the delegation of international experts of WorldSkills International Secretariat chaired by David Hoey spent almost all day on the construction site of Kazan Expo, which will become the main arena of the 2019 WorldSkills competition, on Friday, its participants presented regional officials a brief report on the readiness of Kazan for hosting the next international event. As Realnoe Vremya already told, the initial project of Kazan Expo exhibition complex was seriously corrected towards increasing the area of the building: the initial area of the complex will increase from 51,4 square metres to 75,4 square metres. This is why its commissioning is postponed until 2019.
The attitude of the inspectors of the WorldSkills International Secretariat to it remained unknown. The meeting with the Tatarstan president was behind closed doors. But after it ended, head of the visiting committee David Hoey expressed complete satisfaction of what he saw. As he said, yesterday they saw the facilities, and everything was within the schedule. WorldSkills International CEO saw that a professional team of the Republic of Tatarstan that had great experience in holding international events was working. The centre (Editor's Note: we are talking about Kazan Expo exhibition complex) will be one of the best centres in the region because it will be able to not only host the WorldSkills championship but also other international events, as Hoey said and gave to understand he agreed that the initial project needed to be corrected – there will be a lot to do and they did not have any complaints, everything went as planned.
Hotel rooms included in the budget
After that, we could not help but ask how the budget of the 2019 WorldSkills Kazan would change because the construction cost sheet was included in the budget of the 45 th WorldSkills competition while Kazan Expo accounts for major costs. Having heard out a journalist's question, David Hoey noted that it is up to Russia. He shed the question saying that the host country, that's to say, Russia creates the budget.
Deputy Director General of the Directorate For Sports And Social Projects ANO Emil Gubaidullin took the baton. ''I can't name exact numbers, the budget for 2018-2019 is being created now,'' he told having found it difficult to name a preliminary number of costs. As he said, they are actively consulting with the Ministry of Finance (the Tatarstan Ministry of Finance) on this issue. ''I think the budget will have been created by the end of the year,'' he presupposed. So the budget for preparation for WorldSkills has not been defined, and it is unknown whether it will be financed by the federal budget.
In addition, Emil Gubaidullin told about financing in general. According to him, as any other international event, the budget of 2019 WorldSkills consists of three parts – costs to prepare infrastructure, purchase equipment and operational costs. ''As for the preparation of the infrastructure, we have it – they are necessary facilities, accommodation, roads,'' he enumerated. However, he denied his statement stating that a hotel complex was constructed. This is why ''changes in the construction project of Kazan Expo will be made in the short run''.
Speaking about costs on materials and equipment, together with Young Professionals union (WorldSkills Russia), the Directorate For Sports And Social Projects continue looking for partners to deliver technological equipment that young workers will use in the competition. Robert Urazov added that the championship is traditionally sponsored by the companies that provide real equipment for free. ''If we look at the organisation of the national championship in 2015 and 2016, 40 machine tools were given for free during the competition. Can you imagine the price of these machine tools?'' he asked. So the organisers hope sponsors will help with providing the equipment. As for operational costs, Emil Gubaidullin told briefly: ''we have experience and understanding''.
International sanctions did not worsen the attitude of sponsors to 2019 WorldSkills Kazan. Robert Urazov noted there were not any serious problems with the sanctions because ''WorldSkills International educates and increases the prestige of skilled careers''. And the majority of companies can solve this problem to a certain degree. ''It is important for us that the majority of WorldSkills International partners and our global partners have their own factories in Russia, which reduces our risks and increases the interest in this equipment.'' Curiously, 2019 WorldSkills has several partners now. Alisher Usmanov's Metalloinvest became one of them in June.
Impossible without sponsors
We should remind that the budget of the national WorldSkills competition in Kazan in 2015 was about 75-80 million rubles. However, the world championship will need much more money, so it is impossible to hold it without sponsors. Earlier experts told that an approximate ratio of budget money and sponsorship investments to organise and hold the event can be 25-30% to 70-75%. In addition, the city won't need to spend money to develop the infrastructure. The Ministry of Education and Science already told that it would increase costs to development the WorldSkills movements to more than 1,1 billion rubles in 2017-2019. It seems that the cost sheet of preparation for the championship will be comparable to this sum.