‘Migrants won’t save us’

Closing jobs with manual labour?

The threat of personnel starvation in the republic's economy became one of the main topics during the debate that unfolded at the meeting of the Committee of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan on Economy, Investment and Entrepreneurship after hearing the report of those responsible for the economic development of Tatarstan. However, for the notorious dilemma between the importation of migrants and the purchase of new equipment, the republican authorities found their solution — to get rid of manual labour. It is the scourge of most enterprises, which leads to a decrease in labour productivity, said Oleg Pelevin, the deputy minister of economy of the Republic of Tatarstan. In this official interpretation, the personnel problem did not sound so dramatic and painful.

“Many enterprises in Tatarstan have a high proportion of manual labour," Oleg Pelevin noted in his speech, without voicing specific data on the number of employees. In his opinion, an enclave of unskilled workers can become a source of filling the personnel deficit at any enterprise. “Reengineering and optimisation of production processes will help to free up labour resources," he said. According to him, enterprises need to close jobs with low productivity and replace them with high-performance automated machines and equipment: “This is not just an increase in the efficiency of competitiveness, but a requirement [condition] survival rate," he concluded, rightly believing that machine labour is more efficient than a worker with a shovel. Another question is — are there resources to upgrade production? However, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan Rodion Karpov later added that many enterprises of the Republic of Tatarstan took preferential loans under the programme Improving Labor Productivity.

Shortage of personnel for 5-10 years

“The labour shortage will not be overcome in the next 5-10 years," Marat Galeev, one of the authoritative deputies of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, retorted to them. According to him, every year there will be more and more job vacancies, and the physical shortage of people will be complicated by the lack of professional competencies among applicants: “It will be constantly: “wanted, wanted”. But we are going to face a discrepancy between qualified personnel and their availability.” According to him, the output per employee in the Republic of Tatarstan is higher than the national average, which is good. “But there are a number of industries where labour productivity is lower. But many people are used to working in this way, which will slow down economic growth. Not even a high interest rate, which is what they are talking about now. And there is an insurmountable shortage of personnel," he is sure.

To overcome the shortage of personnel, he proposed creating a programme to reduce low-skilled manual labour: “Nevertheless, there is a request to consider creating a special programme or subprogramme within the framework of the federal program Improving Labor Productivity so that we do not fall below the average level.”

He is sure that there are no other reserves to cover the growing deficit. “Migrants won't save us. Especially since the conditions for their [arrival] are becoming tougher," he warned, in fact, repeating the points of President Vladimir Putin, voiced a week ago at the congress of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia. “I would like to emphasise that, taking into account demographic challenges, the Russian economy is going to experience high demand and even a shortage of personnel in the coming years. This is absolutely for sure. We must understand this, we are going to live with it in the coming years," Putin said. He instructed to increase labour productivity and modernise the industry.

Then the parliamentarians raised the issue of self-sufficiency of the Tatarstan energy system, asking what status the modernisation of the Zainskaya GRES is in. Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Rodion Karpov said that Tatenergo has a turbine with a capacity of 236 MW, which makes it possible to modernise the Naberezhnye Chelny CHP instead of the Zainskaya GRES, but the go-ahead from the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation is needed. “In fact, we will close the need of the Zakamsky zone for generation," he reported.

River port of Chistopol is not accepting ships

The dialogue between parliamentarians and the government revived on the topic of tourism. Lyudmila Rybakova, the head of the Culture Committee, asked why the tourist flow to the museums of Chistopol had decreased by 82%.

The head of the State Committee for Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sergey Ivanov, did not hide that the “freezing” of the stream was connected with the closure of the river port for repairs. The capital works have spread out over a year, and the deadlines for their completion are not even seen. “Last year, there was a significant decrease due to the river port. Not a single ship was accepted," he said. According to him, there is access by bus. The team has changed in the structure of the museum-reserve, and in late April — early May they are holding a strategic session together with tourist operators.

Country glamping is gaining popularity. According to Ivanov, over the past 2 years, entrepreneurs have won 500 million rubles in subsidies for their construction, the fund has expanded to 500 rooms. 31 projects were supported. The average load amounted to 50%. This year, another competitive selection of the Ministry of Economic Development of the republic is expected to provide subsidies in 2025 and 2026. “Bread and circuses [is what people want] — it has always been and always will be. But now we need more bread, and only then we will address tourism," Lutfulla Shafigullin, the head of the State Council Committee on Economy, Investment and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Tatarstan, urged not to focus on recreation.