Tatarstan and Belarus: from potatoes and tractors to failed unification of MAZ with KAMAZ
Realnoe Vremya remembers what Tatarstan and Belarus have in common
On 15 March, the PM of Belarus Andrey Kobyakov arrived in Tatarstan for a two-day visit. Economic cooperation of the region with the fraternal government stems from the depth of the history, but it became closer in 2000, when productions of Belarusian equipment appeared in Tatarstan. A drought in 2010 gave an additional impetus to the development of the relationships, when Belarus helped Tatarstan with potatoes and fodder. Moreover, Andrey Kobyakov personally knows the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.
Political niceties and a picture from stones
A long history of business meetings and economic relationships links Belarus with Tatarstan. However, the contacts were episodic and were not specially made public till the end of the noughties. Meetings of Belarusian and Tatarstan elites began to take place in 2009.
A bit earlier, in April 1997, when the Union State of Russia and Belarus was founded, Tatarstan expressed its willingness to join the union as an independent state on 'soft federation' principle. However, it is difficult to find any information about it now – this topic was also forgotten. By the way, in 2002, when Belarus refused one of the variants of the unification with Russia, the head of United Civic Party Anatoly Lebedko stated that, 'Moscow offered Lukashenko to become Shaimiev and Belarus to be Tatarstan. Lukashenko could accept the variant offered because it would automatically reduce his presidential term. It is better to be the first guy in a village than the ninetieth in a city'.
In 1999, Mintimer Shaimiev invited Aleksander Lukashenko to Kazan, but he did not come. But it is known that Lukashenko presented a picture made of 30 kinds of stones to Shaimiev.
In 2005, Lukashenko finally visited Kazan for a summit of CIS countries, which took place during the celebration of Millennium.
Tractors and cords
Tatarstan and Belarus have relatively long-standing relationships by the beginning of the 2000s. Tatneft started to buy a tyre cord together with rubber produced in Mogilev Khimvolokno from the fraternal republic for Nizhnekamskshina.
In 2002, production of Belarus tractors based on ElAZ factory in Yelabuga began. However, in 2003, this cooperation almost ended: the production was interrupted because of its unprofitability – Minsk Tractor Works raised the prices for vehicle assembly sets. A win-win agreement was achieved in 2004, and assembly was continued. In May 2010, a new assembly factory of Belarus tractors opened in Yelabuga. The PM of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov and his Belarusian colleague Sergey Sidorsky visited the opening ceremony. New assembly factory of Belarus-3022 tractors opened on the territory of Minsk Tractor Works-ElAZ firm, so the production of the previous models went on.
Apart from tractor production in ElAZ, traction motors for BelAZ dump trucks were manufactured in Tatelectromash in Naberezhnye Chelny.
Belarusian potato helped the dialogue
The anomalous hot summer in 2010 favoured a new intensification of the relationships of Tatarstan and Belarus. Large-scale forest fires took over Russia and a huge share of the agricultural harvest, including in Tatarstan, died because of the drought.
But an official delegation of Belarus had visited Kazan before the drought in May 2010. Lukashenko's envoys headed by the PM Sergey Sidorsky came to the capital of Tatarstan. The guests were showed the site of the Universiade Village, IT-park, the building of Kazan Tennis Academy, etc.
Shortly afterwards Rustam Minnikhanov, who just headed the republic, paid a working visit in Belarus where he met with Aleksander Lukashenko. The Minister of Agriculture Marat Akhmetov, the head of Tatneft Shafagat Takhautdinov, the head of the executive committee of Naberezhnye Chelny Vasil Shaikhraziev were in the delegation of Tatarstan. Later Minnikhanov admitted that supply of potato, grains and fodder was the main purpose of the visit.
In a year, in May 2011, a department of the embassy of Belarus opened in Kazan. This information was mentioned for the first time in August 2010; it was said that it would be done according to the decree of the PM Putin by request of the Belarusian party.
In January 2012, Rustam Minnikhanov met with the Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Andrey Kobyakov who arrived on 15 March as PM. At that moment, Minnikhanov noted that it was necessary to forge links in IT, strengthen student, cultural and sports relationships. Kobyakov told that Tatarstan and Belarus had important joint projects: in 2011, 8,000 Belarusian tractors were assembled in Tatarstan, production of combine harvesters developed, there were plans on delivery of Belarusian equipment for communal transport.
In April 2013, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Shamil Ageyev met with the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Belarus Mikhail Myatlikov during the official visit of the delegation of Tatarstan to Belarus. Ageyev presented such investment projects as Innopolis, Alabuga Special Economic Zone, KIP Master, Smart City Kazan. It was also announced that Tatneft was going to open 37 petrol stations in Belarus investing about 1,5bn rubles.
It is interesting that a petrol station of Tatneft was mentioned in the Belarusian mass media, which caused a dissatisfaction among the residents of Brest. In their opinion, the creation of petrol station facilitates the increase of danger of accidents with the participation of local people because Tatneft did not build any pavements near their houses.
About how KAMAZ could not swallow MAZ up
The unification of KAMAZ and MAZ, a real epic, is worthy of mentioning. For the first time the topic of the consolidation of two enterprises was made public by the director general of KAMAZ Sergey Kogogin in December 2010. Then this issue was discussed at a higher level. In the beginning, the Belarusian party accepted the offer for consolidation. There were negotiations between the head of Rostekhnologii Sergey Chemezov and the vice-PM of Belarus Vladimir Semashko. Rosbelavto, a probable name of the future holding, was mentioned at that moment.
The Russian plan of the consolidation presupposed an additional emission of KAMAZ vehicles, after which the authority of Belarus (MAZ is a state enterprise) was offered the following: KAMAZ becomes a 100% shareholder of shares of MAZ, and instead of it, Minsk gets minority shareholding of the factory of Chelny, but no more than 25%.
But in October 2013, it was clear that the consolidation of the Belarusian MAZ PJSC and the Russian KAMAZ PJSC won't take place. The Belarusian President Lukashenko stated that the consolidation was not advantageous for MAZ and even might lead to the annihilation of the enterprise.
2014-2015: frequent visit and many hopes
A meeting of the Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Igor Petrishenko and the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov took place in October 2013. Issues on economic and humanitarian cooperation and realization of bilateral projects, works of assembly factories of Belarusian equipment in the region, delivery of food and passenger vehicles were discussed at the meeting.
A delegation of Tatarstan headed by the Minister of Industry Ravil Zaripov visited Minsk in November 2014. The working visit was organized within the scope of the realization of an agreement on commercial and economical, scientific and cultural cooperation (by the by, adopted in 1992). Belneftekhim hosted negotiations on development of cooperation in petrochemistry. The delegation visited Belshina PJSC, Naftan PJSC (which transports Russian petroleum to Belarus) and Mogilvekhimvolokno PJSC.
The next meeting of the official persons of Tatarstan and Belarus in Kazan was in June 2015 in the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Tatarstan. The Minister of Industry and Trade Ravil Zaripov had negotiations with the Deputy Minister of Industry of Belarus Aleksander Ogorodnikov. The parties discussed the cooperation in industrial spheres and defined the bilateral foreign trade turnover at $1,1bn.
In July 2015, the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Services of Tatarstan Elmira Zaripova visited Minsk. In Belarus, she met with the Minister of Labour and Social Servies Marianna Schetkina and other employees of the Belarusian establishment. The functionaries talked about the prospects of cooperation in the social sphere.
Finally, on 29 October 2015, the chairman of the State Council of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin had a meeting with members of the Commission of Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia on security, defence and crime prevention. Mukhametshin noted the work between the region and Belarus in the sphere of the Military and Defence Complex and safety. Then a sitting of the Commission of the Parliamentary Assembly was held in the State Council.
Who will be a guest?
Now Andrey Kobyakov, the acting PM of the Republic of Belarus, came to Tatarstan for two days. A meeting of Andrey Kobyakov with the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov is planned during the visit. The parties will discuss the results and prospects of the bilateral cooperation. It is also presupposed that the head of the Belarusian government will visit Minsk Transport Works-ElAZ firm (Yelabuga District), Alabuga Special Economic Zone (Yelabuga), KAMAZ PJSC and KIP Master JSC (Naberezhnye Chelny). A visit to Centre of Medical Science/Eydos, a Regional Engineering Centre of Medical Stimulators in Kazan, and Kvantorium tech park for kids (Naberezhnye Chelny) is also included in the programme of the working visit.
Andrey Kobyakov has been acting as PM of the Republic of Belarus since December 2014. He was born in Moscow but has lived almost all his life in Belarus. He graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute, Belarusian State Economic Institute, Institute of Politology and Social Management. In 1983-1988, he worked as a master, deputy head of shop, deputy head of assembly plant of industrial enterprises in Minsk and Gomel Oblast.
From 1988, he started to work in the municipal committee, then worked as a head of the planned economy department of the factory and from 1992 – deputy director on economy of the factory.
From 1995 his posts were close to the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus: to start with, he became the deputy head of Control Service of the President of Belarus, and from 1992 – deputy chairman of the Committee of State Control of Belarus. In 1998, he became the chairman of the Committee of State Control. In 2000, Andrey Kobyakin became the first deputy PM of Belarus, and from 2002 – he was the Minister of Economy of Belarus.
From 2003-2010, he was the deputy PM of Belarus, from 2010 – the deputy head of the Administration of the President of Belarus. In 2011-2012, he became the Belarusian Ambassador to Russia. In 2012, he was designated the head of the Administration of the President of Belarus and has been the PM of Belarus since 27 December.
Reference
Commodity turnover between Belarus and Tatarstan
According to the data of www.belta.by, in 2015, commodity turnover between Belarus and Tatarstan make up $878,4m (the sixth position among all regions of Russia), which is 24,8% less than in 2014. The outstanding balance is negative — $475,6m. The main part of the export of Belarus is delivery of tractors and articulated lorries, liquefied gas, parts and components for cars and tractors, tyre cord, plastic containers, air or vacuum pumps, vehicles and equipment for lifting, transfer, loading or unloading, black metal construction. Belarus imports raw petroleum, including natural-gas condensate, oil products, styrene polymers, propylene polymers, acyclic alcohols and their derivations, ethylene polymers, desks, boards, tables for electrical equipment, tyres, liquefied gas.