Russia’s influential Kaluga region says it has created 12,000 new jobs in its automotive cluster facilities, which are rapidly becoming a part of the country’s employment landscape.
Speaking at last week’s Russian Automotive Forum in Moscow, organised by Adam Smith Conferences, Kaluga deputy governor, Ruslan Zalivatskiy, hailed the region for attracting overseas manufacturers to the area, around 100 miles south west of the country’s capital city.
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“Everyone is interested in Kaluga,” he said. “Nobody believes you when you say the recipe is quite simple – you just need to hire honest people and deliver results. [We have] 12,000 new jobs created at automotive cluster facilities and 22 facilties manufacture automotive components.
“The potential for the Russian car market is huge. Kaluga said we were forming an automotive cluster and today, we are in the top three cities in Russia.
“The main task of each region is to create localisation – we have Volkswagen, PCMA [PSA and Mitsubishi JV] and Volvo Trucks, which are three key people. We are near Moscow and offer developed infrastructure – this is a well-developed logistical network.”
Addressing the same event and speaking for the Sverdlovsk region, deputy chairman of the government, Alexander Petrov, highlighted the importance of developing automotive components in his vast administrative area, lying 880 miles east of Moscow.
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By GlobalData“One of the problems of the Russian machine-building industry is under-developed promotion of automotive component production,” said Petrov. “In 2008, there was a slump and the government has taken all reasonable efforts to revitalise production.
“Today we have a goal to develop automotive components – ‘Titanium Valley’ produces automotive components [as well as] for a whole range of aircraft such as Airbus and Boeing. We are open for co-operation and are inviting all interested investment – our potential is quite immense.”
The possibilites of the Russian market were put into stark focus at the Automotive Forum in Moscow by Duma [Parliament] Expert Council chairwoman, Alfiya Kogogina, who emphasised: “For the third year in a row, Russia is the second largest market in Europe.
Indeed, many are openly speculating Russia could rapidly assume the status of number one country for auto sales ahead of Germany, if the region is considered to be part of the Continent.
Almost 3m vehicles were sold last year and despite a slight drop in that number, Russia is still expected to post sales of 2.95m for 2013.
Towards the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the market was around 1.2m vehicles.
