The Ministry of industry and trade of Russia for the third time gathered in Moscow the Russian producers of light industry goods, and discussed with them the current situation in the industry. Together with leading industry experts it has chosen the top 10 producers of light industry products.
According to the press service of the Ministry of industry and trade, the winners of the contest are following: “Roztekh” (lingerie), AVERS (sport), “Parizhskaya communa” (shoes), “Sudar” (clothes), “Vologda textile” (materials for building), “Energokontrakt” (protective equipment), “Inmed” (materials of medicine), GK Solstudio Textile Design (design), “Ves mir netkanye materialy” (materials for industry), a “Living legend” of the industry was named in person of General Director of “Pskov garment factory” Elena Kosenkova. The purpose of the contest is “support to the promotion of products of Russian enterprises, business development and identifying promising developments among the manufacturers of light industry”.
In addition to representatives of government and business, professional and industry associations, financial institutions and experts totaling over 1’000 people took part on November 24-25, 2016 at the Russian forum of light industry. The forum became a platform for summing up the statements of the wishes of the future work. Probably a common wish was the increasing protectionism of the Russian provitelstva at least 3-5 years required for the investment cycle, as well as strengthening existing support programs in the industry.
Evgeny Titov, the President of “Tchaikovsky textile”, expressed the wish to consolidate 719 and 1224 government regulations that define criteria for assigning products to industrial products and the establishment of a ban and restrictions on foreign goods, respectively. “Protect the market for 3 years – he said, – and it will work independently then”.
Mikhail Shmelyov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of “TDL textile”, said: “Our company definitely would not engage in investment, if there were no state support… If the subsidizing interest rates on loans canceled, then the companies can minimize the fundings, because if the worldwide interest rate is 3-3.5%, we have 11% and above”. His proposals included following: “Today a broader preference for goods for state needs is required”.
Igor Surin, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of GC “Russian leather”, talked about the fact that today the light industry is deeply involved in intersectoral cooperation. He, like all other participants, noted the positive role of the Ministry of industry and trade, and, simultaneously, the problems: “While the Ministry trying to pull the industry, the rest – I mean the Ministry of Finance, the FAS, the Ministry of economy, try to draw us”. Among those measures, which could help the development of the industry and investing in it, he called restrictions on imports of raw materials and semi-finished products with low degree of processing.
By the way, regarding other agencies speakers have expressed serious complaints other market participants. For example, it was stated that the tax authorities force to repay members of the manufacturing cycle taxes debts of other companies. For example, one factory suppliers have debt for personal income tax, the tax authorities come to the factory and threaten to stop production if they will not pay the debt for the provider.
According to Deputy Minister of industry and trade Evtukhov V. L., “the Industry today is one of the few industries showing growth”, it “provides 0.9% of GDP, 2.4% of industrial production and 3.6% of the total manufacturing industries. Together in 2016 2.2 billion roubles were allocated on support of light industry”. Support of the industry contains organizational, financial and regulatory measures.
Financial support of light industry is a subsidy (in 2016 allocated 400 million rubles), as well as compensation of interest on credit purchase loan of the new equipment and favorable leasing programs.
Regulatory measures contain programs to stimulate demand, from January 2017 will be implemented 15% preference if the company is state-owned buys Russian products. In addition, measures to support enterprises with a turnover of 2 billion rubles, but with a large number of employees. In addition, the Ministry is directly involved in the organization of localization of production of raw materials in Russia. A bright example of realisation of such project was the construction of a polyester plant in the Ivanovo region (Ivanovo polyester complex).
“We want to build a complete infrastructure for implementation of projects on creation of new factories and modernization and technical re-equipment of existing production in the light industry”, – said V. L. Evtukhov.
