Chinese companies are interested in importing fertilizers, pulp and agricultural products from Bashkortostan
Representatives of Chinese companies from the field of agriculture, wood processing and machine-building industries shared their interest in cooperation with Bashkortostan in terms of import supplies of agricultural products, fertilizers and pulp. This became known during a meeting with the delegation of the People's Republic of China, which arrived in the region under the leadership of the Deputy Mayor of the People's Government of Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China, Ms. Zheng Bin. During her speech, the Vice Mayor of Shenyang called Bashkortostan one of the key partners of the province among Russian subjects.
Margarita Bolycheva, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Congress Activities of the Republic of Bashkortostan, who moderated the meeting, stressed that China is the No. 1 partner for Bashkortostan. At the same time, special attention is paid to working with Liaoning Province.
Today, Shenyang is one of the priority cities in China for us to cooperate. We visited Liaoning Province, the administrative center of which is Shenyang, last month, and now our colleagues have come on a return visit to continue discussing the agreements reached. Our task is to diversify cooperation and develop it in all directions. By the end of 2023, China's share in the region's foreign trade turnover amounted to almost a quarter of the total turnover of Bashkortostan with foreign partners. We supplied mainly machine-building products, chemical industry products, rubber, food products and raw materials to China. China, in turn, exported machine-building products, chemical industry products, rubber, metals and products made from them, textiles and textile products to Bashkortostan, Margarita Bolycheva shared.
During the negotiations, the parties presented the economic and investment potential of Bashkortostan and Shenyang. The guests from China talked about the industrial opportunities of the capital Liaoning: chemical plants, enterprises for the production of automobile spare parts, aircraft and engines for them, etc. are located in Shenyang. The delegation also noted the interest in cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence.
As noted by Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investment Policy of the Republic of Bashkortostan Marat Islamov, today the region is one of the leading, economically strong and dynamically developing regions of the country. Key transport routes intersect here, which provides advantages for the implementation of joint projects on the formation of an effective export and logistics infrastructure. Industry and agriculture are actively developing in the region, which opens up prospects for cooperation. The Republic is open to partnership, annually improving the quality of the business environment and the comfort of entrepreneurial activity.
Last year, the volume of investments reached a historic high, exceeding 620 billion rubles. In 5 years, we have managed to increase investments by one and a half times, while in the whole country they have increased by less than a third. Our republic has a really wide range of preferential zones for investors who plan to implement their projects with us. There are 5 territories of advanced development in the republic, where 126 resident companies operate. In addition, we have a wide network of 12 industrial and 19 technoparks in the republic. For a profitable partnership, we have provided maximum tax preferences, subsidies and support measures for investors," Marat Islamov noted.
Nail Gabbasov, Director General of the Regional Development Corporation, told the meeting participants about the support of investment projects in the Republic of Bashkortostan, describing in detail the main activities of the department and successful cases. Special attention was paid to the largest preferential zone, the management company of which is the SEZ Development Corporation Alga and the state support measures in force on its territory.
The first step towards establishing mutual cooperation with colleagues from Liaoning Province was taken during the regular visit of the delegation of Bashkortostan to China in May this year. During this time, we have formed a pool of proposals that could be of interest to our Chinese partners. One of them is the possibility of creating a Bashkir-Chinese industrial park endowed with the preferences of a special economic zone and tax and customs privileges. I would like to note that today, for its localization in the republic, there is a territory that is being considered for the expansion of the SEZ "Alga" - this is the city of Agidel. In this case, a number of logistical issues can be solved by creating a river port, Nail Gabbasov noted.
Deputy Mayor of the People's Government of Shenyang, Liaoning Province, Ms. Zheng Bin stressed the willingness to cooperate with Bashkortostan in this direction, noting that today the republic is ahead of many regions of the country in terms of the number of state support measures.
Following the meeting, representatives of China expressed interest in localizing the production of packaging equipment in Bashkortostan and increasing supplies of environmentally friendly food products to China - honey, birch sap, chaga, corn. The deputy director of the Chinese company for the production of rice and cereals "Oktyabrsky rice field" shared her intentions to lease land in Bashkortostan for the organization of crop production.
