Senior partner of the Avuar audit and consulting group - on why the development of a development strategy is a thankless job, why Chelyabinsk region we need another airport, and why the main resource for development is not the economy, but education.
Alexey Dmitrievich, you head a group that is developing a strategy for social economic development Chelyabinsk region until 2035.
Yes, to be honest, at first I didn’t really want to write a strategy. Partly because I understand what it is. In 2002-2005, I worked in the regional Ministry of Economic Development and was engaged in this. In addition, predicting the future is generally an amateur job. If only because you understand that it will not come true anyway (smiles).
On the other hand, the last serious development strategies in our area were written in 1998 and 2008. It just so happened that both times the crises that broke out in those years made these works irrelevant after a few months.
Nevertheless, I understand that the region needs a strategy. On the basis of just such documents, budget planning should be carried out and the necessary normative base. Planning in any case should be based on something. Not on the fact, for example, that the conditional head of the conditional region flew to the conditional Munich, he liked something there, and he decided: "Let's do the same." We are still talking about money, and it is necessary to plan in advance, share, understand what is in priority, and in general - where this money will come from.
A strategy is needed. But none of the normal people want to do it (smiles). Thankless job.
“Then why did you decide to take this case?”
Firstly, this is quite a serious professional challenge for me.
Secondly, it coincides with my worldview. Over time, I realized that I would live here, in Chelyabinsk (smiles). I'm comfortable here. This is a city (like the whole region) with a still good quality of workforce, with many interesting people, and at the same time it is a territory with fairly low costs. A million-plus city is the best place to live. There is already a lot of infrastructure here, but there is not the same fuss as in Moscow.
Thirdly, the governor of the region, Boris Dubrovsky, decided that it was necessary to develop a strategy based on "self-reliance." This is not devoid of a certain logic - those who know the region and want to continue living in it should develop plans for the development of the region.
Moreover, almost all regional strategies, which are developed by large consulting companies, are quite template. I looked at several similar documents - this is, in fact, a matrix where regional indicators, and everything else goes exactly identical to each other.
The authorities of the region allocated nine million rubles for the development of the strategy. In the eyes of the layman, this is significant money. Is it really a lot or a little?
In fact, not only the amount is important, but also the deadline for completing the work. When compared with other regions, the "price tag" ranged from 120 million and two years of work to 18-19 million and a year of work. We have, I repeat - nine million. And only six months to work. That's not a lot.
The development of any strategy begins with a detailed analysis of the current situation, position. At the same time, I have heard more than once that there really isn’t that much of really high-quality information, analytical and statistical data on the economy of the region.
This did not come as a surprise to us. As well as the fact that the available statistics rather wishful thinking. Although there is a lot of reliable, high-quality information. But one thing is data that can be counted and verified - say, the number legal entities or the number of registered properties. And quite another - for example, the volume of foreign trade turnover of the Chelyabinsk region with other regions of Russia. It is hardly possible to calculate this in any detail. We treat these data philosophically...
If we consider the economy of the region as a whole, then we need to understand the resources, competitive advantages. If we are provided with resources and have competitive advantages, then where exactly the flow of goods will go - to Bashkiria, Kazakhstan or the USA, will be decided by the entrepreneurs themselves, and not by the authorities. The task of the authorities is, in the presence of a competitive product, to provide the necessary support measures for it. Or create conditions for creating a competitive product. In our work, my colleagues and I proceeded precisely from this.
- Whom did you involve in the work on the strategy?
We tried to gather everyone who wants to help. And it even became a problem for us - the customer set the deadlines short. And we only talked to anyone - factories, economic faculties and departments of universities, municipalities, even art critics and journalists. The positive thing about this was that there were many interesting thoughts, ideas, messages. But when it came to the fact that everything proposed should be clearly described, there were fewer applicants (smiles). In general, we have a lot of people who are ready to talk, to speculate about the prospects for development. But there is much less clear understanding of how to achieve this, what mechanisms should be in place. There are problems with this.
As a result, we settled on the fact that SUSU took over part of the work, ChelSU took over some of the work, gave part of the work to the federals, in particular, attracted analytical center"Expert" and Dmitry Tolmachev.
“In general, we have a lot of people who are ready to talk, to speculate about the prospects for development. But there is much less clear understanding of how to achieve this.”
Returning to the current state of the Chelyabinsk region, its economy. What is the state of affairs, and is the economy of our region very different from what is commonly thought of it?
If we talk about the economy, then our region continues to lag behind similar regions of the country. We do not even take leaders - Moscow, St. Petersburg or Kazan. Now we are losing in comparison even to our colleagues - "metallurgists" from Cherepovets ( Vologda Region) or Lipetsk. In addition to them, we also watched Kuzbass and our neighbors from Sverdlovsk region and Bashkortostan.
If we take the Vologda and Lipetsk regions, then their growth rates are explained by a “low base”, but they are ahead of us in terms of the dynamics of economic diversification in their regions. They have become less "metallurgical" than the Chelyabinsk region. And in terms of pace, dynamics economic growth(starting from budget revenues, household income, gross regional product) they are now ahead of us.
The Chelyabinsk region in the 90s lost the way of the economy that was in the years Soviet Union. We were strong not only in metallurgy. We not only produced metal, but also made machines, equipment, electrical equipment from this metal, on which the final product was produced. Third or fourth level of redistribution.
Now, in fact, only the first or second level of redistribution remains. We produce metal, extract some minerals, but metalworking and mechanical engineering, alas, have not survived at the same level.
The same metalworking now occupies a meager percentage of the metal produced in the region. And our metallurgists, since the engineering industry collapsed in the 90s, do not consider consumers in the Chelyabinsk region as customers of any importance for themselves, and practically all products are supplied either for export or to other regions of the country. It is almost unrealistic to take the same copper at the RCC plants - they are contracted for years to come. The same is true with Mechel or MMK, you can get their products at best from large wholesalers.
- What about mechanical engineering and the defense industry?
Those whom we call machine builders, as a rule, dream of either getting a state defense order, or integrating into the supply chain of state corporations or oil and gas companies such as Rosneft or Gazprom.
You see... almost the entire economy of the region... Firstly, we do not have a final product, and secondly, the largest industries are rather focused on the demand of large consumers outside the region, and not on B2C, not on the end consumer, not on retail market, not to the domestic demand of the area residents. Our economy does not know how to work for its own population.
- What about agriculture?
Yes, of course, it is focused on the end consumer, it is, after all, food (smiles). And yes, it began to occupy a prominent place in the economy. But this is still far from metallurgy in terms of volume.
“Our economy does not know how to work for its own population”
In fact, there is an objective side to what I have described. By and large, our enterprises can count on the end consumer, on the demand of the population only within the Ural location - Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Tyumen region, Bashkortostan. This is actually a good location, the third largest in the country, more than 15 million people live in these territories within a 500-kilometer shoulder from Chelyabinsk.
- Good market.
Yes, not bad. But not China. If, however, to make a mass end product for the whole world, it is necessary to have the logistics of its delivery, and the cheapest possible. That is, a port. Sea transportation is the cheapest, especially if in large volumes. And we have three thousand kilometers to the nearest sea.
Wait. For many years we have been told that the Chelyabinsk region has a unique geographic location and certain logistical potential and benefits.
Now for our producers we have no advantages in logistics. Our manufacturers can count on an effective transport distance of 500, for some types of goods - 700 kilometers. This is, in fact, the Great Urals.
- What about the prospects for a transport corridor to China and in the opposite direction - to Europe?
Once, as an official, I promoted this idea. And it is generally alive - the corridor Urumqi - Chelyabinsk - Western Europe.
- And we will not run into the limits of the capacity of the railway and the M-5 highway?
M-5 is a real misfortune, a problem. From all sides - both from the transport and logistics point of view, from the point of view of the region's economy, and from the point of view of security: accidents and deaths are going through the roof. This problem must be solved one way or another. It is key to our area.
But the authorities of the region cannot spend their resources on the M-5 - the highway is federal. Although at one time there was talk about the construction of an understudy track.
The cost of reconstruction of our section M-5, according to our calculations, is about 70 billion rubles. The option with a double track is also generally realistic. There are two options: either the authorities of the region will be able to convince Rosavtodor (which I don’t really believe in, because their plans have already been made up for a long time to come), or we are making a double toll highway. But its creation without attracting a federal grant or something like that is hardly possible.
The development of logistics without the M-5 is impossible. After all, our vector of development, as I see it, is directed to Asia. In central Russia, competition is already very high, and if our producers look for their own markets, then they are to the east of the Chelyabinsk region.
The corridor "Western Europe - Western China" is important even in a global sense. And it will take place where conditions will be created for this faster, whether it be our region or, say, Orenburg. If the M-5 highway and the railway become part of this corridor, then Chelyabinsk can become a truly sought-after logistics hub.
Although, if you look closely at technology, 17 years ahead ... Railway- not the most promising form of transport.
- Why?
Very expensive. The highway is also expensive. Roads, railways and automobiles are a huge infrastructure that must first be created, built for huge money, and then maintained, which also requires significant costs.
Why is sea freight the cheapest? Because, in fact, apart from ports, there is no infrastructure there - the ships just sail on the sea.
Aviation today has restrictions on the carrying capacity of aircraft, so "air" is also quite expensive. But so far, calculations show that in the distant future it is air transport that will dominate along with sea transport, especially if vehicles with a large carrying capacity and low costs are created - airships or something else.
- That is, a high-class airport is becoming a key factor in development?
Yes, definitely. And the region also needs one more airport, in the mining area, between Chelyabinsk and Ufa, approximately in the Zlatoust region. airport under regional lines, but with the ability to fly, say, to Moscow. Otherwise, our tourist cluster will remain an unclaimed dream.
The current scheme, when you first need to fly to Chelyabinsk (which is not yet Dubai, and does not make such an impression on its own), the airport of which does not yet have sufficient capacity, and then go 130–150 kilometers along the M-5 to its current state... Not the most joyful prospect for any tourist. It is better to fly immediately to where a person wants to relax.
“The region needs another airport, in the mining zone, between Chelyabinsk and Ufa, approximately in the Zlatoust region”
The development strategies developed by the leading regions of the country are distinguished by very serious ambitious tasks. In the same Tatarstan, the task is to increase the population of the republic by one million people. The logic is clear enough - the more people live qualitatively in the territory, the more money there is, the larger the market, including the consumer market, and the higher the level and development opportunities. As far as I remember the first discussions in your working group, experts were inclined to believe that it would be good not to lose in the population ... Why? And how ambitious is the strategy you are developing?
The task of increasing the population of the region was set before us by the governor of the region, Boris Dubrovsky, who considers such a development of events, among other things, the best assessment of the quality of the region's management.
But we have prioritized not the total number of the population, but its quality, forgive me this expression. The quality of human capital is the key indicator.
You know, any new technology, in addition to all its benefits, always leads to the reduction of "simple" jobs. Always. And the reduction of jobs in those industries that form the basis of our economy today is an inevitable process.
Therefore, we considered that the goal should be not so much the gross growth of the population as the improvement of the quality of life. And for this, first of all, the level of people's competencies - their skills, experience, qualifications, knowledge - should grow.
To put it very simply, smart people should live in the Chelyabinsk region, and they should live well.
- But in what indicators it could be expressed?
In the economy, this is primarily labor productivity and output per employee. This is the difference between Russia and the leading countries now.
Now the average output per working person is about 730 thousand rubles a year. A little over 60 thousand per month. And the same level of wages simply cannot be higher than labor productivity. And in the same Germany, the output is 80 thousand euros per year per employee. Here is the difference that separates us from what we want to achieve ...
This does not mean that our person should work more (sometimes this is simply impossible) - but he should work smarter, on different, more efficient equipment, and using completely different technologies. Either the product that a person creates must be unique and unrepeatable.
In addition, the design of our labor market is fundamentally wrong. A good half of the labor market is something one way or another tied either directly to the budget, or to something quasi-budgetary (MUPs, UIAs, state-owned enterprises, and the like). But the public sector does not create added value; at best, it provides a service.
This can be changed only by radically changing the quality of public administration. Which, in a good way, should become a kind of global online service. Everything that a person wants from the state, he must receive through, roughly speaking, mobile app on the phone, and, if possible, not to meet with the official at all. This, by the way, among other things, will drastically reduce costs.
And in any case, the economy that will be created, the technologies that will appear - all this is invented by people. And our super goal is to make here a kind of "factory" for the production of such smart people. The smartest people.
- That is - the battle for the brains?
Yes. As in the rest of the world, mind you.
- But what you are talking about is impossible without high-quality education.
Studying where to get these "brains", we analyzed the level and quality of education in the Chelyabinsk region. It turned out that the level of secondary education we have is quite decent. But further...
Now those graduates who have done well in our best schools and lyceums are leaving Chelyabinsk immediately. In the same Moscow. Those who stayed here study at our universities, but if they graduated well, then, as a rule, they also leave.
Here, for the most part, conditional “triples” remain. And they are much less likely to create something new, breakthrough. Although they often make good entrepreneurs, and they should not be underestimated (smiles). But we need not just good businessmen, but creators, inventors of something new.
We have a good basic resource - graduates of our schools. But why are they leaving? Someone - because he wants to live in Moscow or New York. Normal desire, and it is unlikely that something can be done about it. But let's look at the same USA - not everyone there sets out to go to Washington (or New York, or California). After all, the university capital of the United States is Boston. We would like Chelyabinsk to become such a "Boston".
How is that? If there are some leading Russian universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk?
And in terms of my business, and also because my children are now entering universities, I was forced to analyze in detail the Russian higher education. And I'll tell you that, well, we don't have either Stanford Universities or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in our country. In Russia, there are simply good, well-known universities, there are high level basic higher education. But in our universities there is no reference point for the constant introduction of the best practices into the educational process.
These practices originate from world leaders. And they do not consider this data secret, and share it quite calmly (maybe because it has already been invented, and they are working on something new). Look, the same Massachusetts Institute of Technology just published in the public domain all of its core training courses. Come to the site, look, study, implement. The same universities are calm about the exchange of teachers, and similar practices. Well, why not take these best world practices and implement them here? In addition, few people in Russia do this ...
- Will our universities want to do this? Do they need it?
Right now we can (if we want to) become leaders in this industry. And, as they say, "for cheap." And it's not just the major universities...
- That is, not only SUSU, but, say, a private Russian-British Institute of Management?
By the way, an excellent example of its kind.
One not only does not exclude the other, but it is impossible without each other. And believe me, it is the human resource that changes the economy the most.
But there is another factor without which growth and development are impossible - people must believe that this is possible and that this is already happening.
Right. And here dynamics are very important. If people see that something, even if little by little, but still changes for the better, that something happens every day, that will be enough. But something needs to happen every day. It's all pretty clear and doable. Would like to...
Vice Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Alexei Hovakimyan is retiring for own will. The published statement of the governor's press service about the official's resignation did not come as a surprise to the majority of political experts in the South Urals. Myself Alexei Hovakimyan who was in charge of the government for last year for attracting investments, refrains from commenting. Observers link the departure of the vice-governor directly with the inefficient performance of his direct duties. However, according to the Internet newspaper, the reasons that prompted the associates of the Chelyabinsk governor to so persistently seek the removal of the “chief in investment” from power are not only this.
It is obvious that the departure of the vice-governor was the result of a split in the team that emerged several months ago Michael Yurevich. According to , a statement of resignation at his own request from the post of vice-governor of the region Alexey Hovakimyan put at the beginning of the week. The message on the governor's website appeared yesterday at the very end of the day, when the front pages of newspapers had already been sent to print and the final news and expert stories on TV channels and online media were made up.
However, even in the absence of official and expert comments, it was obvious that the resignation Hovakimyan forced a long hardware confrontation in the team Yurevich.
Press service Yurevich clarifies that Hovakimyan joined the regional government for a little over a year, that is, on February 1, 2011. He was entrusted with a direction of work of fundamental importance - the examination of investment projects in the region. In the first months of work in a new position Hovakimyan presented to the public plans for the development of a tourist cluster in the Chelyabinsk region. It was said that the competitive advantages of the Southern Urals - beautiful nature and a huge number of lakes - just need to be converted into investments, mostly foreign ones. After a while, a tourism development program formed with the participation of expert management was approved. Money, however. It was not provided for in the budget.
Pro Hovakimyan talked about as a dependent figure. This opinion is shared, in particular, by the political scientist Alexander Podoprigora. "Initially Alexei Hovakimyan was a senator Konstantin Tsybko, with whom they, in particular, work within the framework of the Agency regional development. The vice-governor must attract investments to the region, but there are no concrete results of his work. There are only statements about large projects without specifics,” said a political scientist known for his closeness to the opposing group in a recent interview. Tsybko clan surrounded by the Chelyabinsk governor.
Nevertheless, Hovakimyan for a long time remained the main speaker on investment issues after the governor himself. Seeking to attract foreign investment in the stagnant economy of the Southern Urals, the governor Yurevich traveled several times during the year European countries, US, China, meeting with government circles and entrepreneurs. Accompanied him everywhere Hovakimyan.
They say companions Yurevich from among the "old guard" are very jealous Yurevich to his friend Tsybko, and as a result, they did not like his henchmen - the vice-governor Alexey Hovakimyan and First Assistant for Electoral Technology Nikolay Sandakov. The results of the December elections, which were disastrous for the EdRa (according to experts, the percentage above the national average was only achieved thanks to the administrative resource) made it possible to weaken the political influence Tsybko surrounded by the governor. Yes, sir Sandakov was sent into exile to resolve political processes in the Ashinsky region, remote from Chelyabinsk. Impact on the economic wing of the team Tsybko was inflicted Alexander Podoprigora, who in his numerous comments accused the official of Hovakimyan failed to cope with the duties assigned to him for the examination of investment projects.
“A person without experience and training was pulled out of nowhere to an extremely responsible post (this was done by Senator K. Tsybko), - wrote about it in his blog Alexander Podoprigora. - He did a lot in this post, he could not do anything (moreover, he got into political intrigues), which caused a lot of public criticism and reasonable questions. Investment is a key point of the governor's program Yurevich. And someone had to bear political responsibility for the disruption of this program. They chose, of course, the weakest link, without which they can easily do without. In general, everything this time is almost like in civilized countries: appointment - a year of work - failure - public criticism - resignation by decision of the governor. At some point, we need to start accustoming these guys to the idea that responsibility and reputation are not empty words in politics, even in ours.”
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the week Hovakimian hit by heavy artillery. The official website of the government of the Chelyabinsk region posted a statement of the first vice-governor Oleg Grachev, in which he, in unexpectedly harsh tones, denied information about the plans of regional authorities to build an analogue of Disneyland.
“No plans were discussed in the government of the Chelyabinsk region, negotiations on this matter were not officially conducted with anyone,” he said. In his opinion, "it is possible that some officials wishful thinking, thereby exposing themselves, first of all, to ridicule." “For the regional government, the priorities were and will be those projects in which investors, having actually invested money, have already passed the so-called “point of no return”. Everything else is clownery and projecting,” said the first vice-governor, calling Disneyland an unrealistic project.
After that, it became obvious to many that the issue of resignation had been resolved.
A well-known Chelyabinsk political strategist and political scientist puts forward a different version of a hardware coup surrounded by Yurevich Alexander Melnikov. Resignation Hovakimyan, in his opinion, has "a weak relation to purely professional claims", but fits well into the logic of the quartet's expected move to Moscow Yurevich-Grachev-Ufimtsev-Evdokimov.
“At the farm in the Chelyabinsk region, a proven and loyal team should remain as much as possible (as far as possible when the old guard leaves). Therefore, the desired configuration began to build now. Not sure what to care Hovakimyan the presidential wording "due to loss of confidence" applies. Rather: due to its insufficient quantity. These are the harsh realities transition period", - says the expert.
That Hovakimyan did not dream of a career as an official, many said. He was quite comfortable as one of the leaders of Avuar, the largest auditing company in Chelyabinsk. Having taken the position of vice-governor, he did not fit into the apparatus intrigues and did not completely become his own in the building at Zwilling, 27.
A source in the Ministry of Economic Development of the region partially confirms the version voiced by Alexander Melnikov. The cause of a hardware conflict in the environment Yurevich and subsequent resignation Hovakimyan became not professional claims against the latter, but to a greater extent the plans of the team Tsybko on the privatization of the state-owned stake in ChTZ-Uraltrak LLC.
About these plans Hovakimyan said shortly after taking office: “The region is also selling its share, the money from the sale is not needed, most likely, we will take away the “social program” at the expense of this package. At one time, ChTZ was built like a city, they had their own clubs, recreation centers, schools, clinics. The region will take the social part at the expense of its share, and the plant will concentrate on production,” he said in an interview.
Later it became known that the regional government had developed a cunning scheme for the exchange of assets with Uralvagonzavod, which has recently been listed as the general investor of ChTZ. The interest of the two participants in the exchange is simple. UVZ needs the production assets of the plant, some of which are still on the balance sheet of the regional Ministry of Industry, and the government is ready to take away the social benefits of tractor workers. For the sake of such a case, the government was even ready to sell the investor his share of ChTZ-Uraltrak LLC. But the government was afraid to enter an open competition, because a random structure could buy a package. Therefore, it was decided to transfer the regional package of ChTZ to authorized capital Regional development agencies. And already, according to the law, it has the right to carry out an exchange operation: you give us production facilities and premises, and we give you palaces of culture and other social programs.
Receipt of an RDA whose president is Konstantin Tsybko, and the curator in the government of the region was Alexei Hovakimyan, according to the information, caused an uproar in the opposite camp of the apparatus, and the regional minister of economic development Elena Murzina on the sidelines, she even promised to spare no effort to block this deal.
In September 2011, it became known that the share in the authorized capital of ChTZ-Uraltrak was included in the regional privatization plan for 2012. It is believed that the transaction for the assignment of ChTZ assets could take place in the middle - second half of 2012. The economic bonuses received by the RDA as a result of this non-transparent operation were estimated by the source at 850 million rubles.
Operation to discredit Hovakimyan and his removal from power made it possible to block the plans of the Tsybko group in the government of the region. The future of the very structure called the Agency for Regional Development also seems very vague today. Most likely "brainchild" Tsybko And Hovakimyan, having lost its status, will retain its nominal terms of reference in the near future.
Will follow developments.
Alexey Hovakimyan was born in 1972 in the city of Ozersk.
He graduated from the South Ural Polytechnic School, received his higher education at the South Ural State University at the Faculty of Economics and Law.
He began his career in August 1996 as an operational officer of the Office Federal Service of the tax police in the Chelyabinsk region, then became the head of the organizational and inspection department and completed his work in the tax police as an assistant to the head of the department.
From August to November 2002 he headed the Consolidated Department economic analysis, forecasting and regulation of the Committee for the Economy of the Chelyabinsk Region. In November 2002, he was appointed head of the Entrepreneurship Support Center of the Committee for the Economy of the Chelyabinsk Region.
In January 2004 he moved to the position executive director Symbol Corporation - Stroy Invest, where he worked until April 2005.
From April 2005 to January 2011, he was the main founder and director of the Avuar Audit Company, one of the largest audit and consulting companies in Chelyabinsk and the region.
In parallel with his main job, Alexey Ovakimyan was engaged in teaching activities - first at the Ozersk Institute of Technology - a branch of MEPhI, and then at SUSU, where he worked for 10 years at the Department of Economics and economic security. Since 2001 he has a PhD in Economics.
He received an auditor's certificate in 2002 for the type of audit activity "General Audit". Member of the Audit Chamber of Russia since 2006, member of the Council of the Ural Regional Branch of the Audit Chamber of Russia since 2008.
For a long time he was a freelance adviser to the office of the plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Urals federal district, the head of his territorial reception in the city of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region.
From February 2011 to April 2012 - Deputy Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region for legal, property and investment issues.
https://www.site/2017-01-24/aleksey_ovakimyan_ob_upravlenii_ekonomikoy_i_perspektivah_malogo_i_srednego_biznesa
“Our idea for Greenflight was considered too optimistic”
Alexey Hovakimyan - on economic management and prospects for small and medium-sized businesses
Former vice-governor of the Chelyabinsk region, and now a senior partner of Avuar Group of Companies Alexey Ovakimyan believes that in Russia and in Chelyabinsk, in particular, there are brains and ideas that will allow the country to overcome the technological gap. The problem is different - according to Ovakimyan, the fiscal side is strong in the Russian model of the economy, so many entrepreneurs are afraid to start new business. Is there a future for Russian economy and how he and his partner wanted to save Greenflight, Alexey Ovakimyan told the site in an interview.
— Economic news sometimes looks like a military report. Can we expect an improvement in the economic situation in Russia?
We are in a global society. And we cannot be considered in isolation from the world. The economy is a cyclical thing. After a while, everything repeats itself, but at a new level. The cyclical decline that is now observed will turn into growth. But the problem is that the model of the world economy is changing: new services, new types of business appear. And we will get out of this crisis when we master new technologies. When we can compete with what is happening not even in China, but in the USA. We see that energy carriers are being replaced by alternative fuels. The internal combustion engine is being replaced by an electric one, Amazon is selling goods without sellers. What we used to make from metal will be made from completely different materials in the foreseeable future. The skeleton of the economy is changing. The crisis will end when we understand that we must produce new, competitive products, and not try to sell irrelevant materials at a profit.
Russia has a potential for these technologies. We underestimate ourselves, but we have developments in almost all areas, which will soon become the main ones in the global economy. These developments are even in Chelyabinsk.
— There is a lot of talk about our technological backwardness, is it possible to catch up?
- We are very far behind in the system of economic management. But the lag in technology is not scary. Now from a startup to a business, the path has been reduced to a minimum. A few years ago, no one thought about a service like Ali Baba or about Tesla cars. It took quite a bit of time, people came up with it and implemented it. And now such projects cover the entire world space. Therefore, the lag in technology is easily overcome. We have brains for this. Until recently, I didn't believe it.
Now I see that there are ideas and brains for their implementation even in the Urals, not to mention Russia as a whole. But our economic management system is lame on both legs.We took a roll in the fiscal direction. Everything works according to the principle: when there is no money, they need to be taken from someone. The easiest way is to take from the business. Therefore, many are afraid to start in this situation. If we change the system, make it more loyal to entrepreneurs, then it will not be difficult to catch up with Western technologies. It will be easier than in the 1930s, when industrialization was going on and infrastructure was being built. Now these expenses are not needed. Now we need to give entrepreneurs some freedom and some money.
- But it has already happened, both entrepreneurs and money ended up abroad ...
- It is difficult to find the golden mean between freedom and control. And I won't tell you where she is. But the economy is a free substance. And money always goes where it's safe. If a person understands that it is safer here, then he will not lead money anywhere. Entrepreneurs who are now working in Russia are real patriots. They saw all the negativity that can be on the part of the state, and still stayed. These people, ceteris paribus, will not leave and the money will not be taken away. We often want to find an investor who will bring money, technology, build a factory, give us jobs and taxes. But this is an illusion. The plant will be built first of all by a local entrepreneur. Yes, it will attract technology and funding from outside, but the initiative will always come from the territory. If a business is guaranteed that no one will take away the income received, and that the property right will be unshakable at least until the end of its life, then it will not run away.
- Where will the Chelyabinsk region with its metallurgy end up, do we have growth points in the new economy?
— In the new economy Electric Energy will be in greater demand than now. It makes no sense to develop alternative energy sources in the Chelyabinsk region. There are places where there are much more sunny days than here. Therefore, fields with solar panels near Troitsk are unlikely to appear. A very lively topic for us is materials for new energy. This is a very capacious topic. Even 15 years ago, Snezhinsky VNIITF offered to produce silicon-based solar cells. The project did not go, but they had these technologies already then. Now China is ahead of the whole world in the production of solar panels. But this does not mean that we cannot enter this market, because raw materials are produced here. In addition, in our region we have an exclusive for graphite, which is involved in all modern nano-materials. There are no plans to replace copper in the foreseeable future. And we are more than competitive in the production of this material. We have concentrated both raw material base and production. Secondly, no one canceled the logistics. Yes, it will develop, maybe new types of air transportation will appear, but for the next 10 years the Chelyabinsk-Yekaterinburg transshipment base, which is a corridor to China, will not go anywhere.
The idea of a new silk road from China from Urumqi, through Kazakhstan, to the Yuzhnouralsky TLC to Moscow, still has the right to exist.And where there is logistics, there can be both packaging and production. This is also a growing point. Another important element. Chelyabinsk is a densely populated metropolis, we have a high level of education and low costs. Chelyabinsk now has the lowest cost per square meter compared to other millionaires, and one of the most low wages. We could make an outsourcing center here. Robotization of office functions, such as accounting, personnel, call center, is the prospect of a very near future. Companies will outsource this. Chelyabinsk has gigantic prospects here. Here is the entry point of Chelyabinsk into big business. We may have specialists who will work for companies throughout the country. Everything that can be outsourced can be brought to Chelyabinsk due to the low cost of real estate, low wages and high qualifications. These are tens of thousands of jobs that can be occupied by people who have been vacated in industrial enterprises thanks to new technologies.
- And what will global robotization lead to on a global scale?
- Most likely, people will go from America. It is a technological leader, and it was the first to start laying off low-skilled personnel. Therefore, they started talking about the fact that they no longer need migrants. From there, the wall on the border with Mexico is also taken. Previously, the economy needed workers, and migrants were treated with loyalty. Now these hands are not needed, everything is robotized. And the first country to face this problem will be the United States. It is possible that companies will be charged with additional tax burden to support the unemployed. But this is partly offset by the fact that new needs and new products appear. The world's population is growing, and it needs something to feed. These tasks will be solved by the liberated people. Catastrophic unemployment in the world will not happen all at once.
- Now they talk a lot about supporting small and medium-sized businesses, but on the other hand, a small enterprise will not build, for example, a rocket ...
“Our economic management model is set up to make it easier to control a large company. Therefore, the system is focused on supporting large enterprises. Whatever they say in the ministries and departments, the essence of the system is to support the big ones. But what we started with new economy big companies won't. If you take the top five global companies, except for Wallmart, these are all oil companies. Who made the revolution? Nobody. Everyone sits on resources, deals with conjuncture and quotes. Even Walmart missed the wave when Amazon and Ali-express came along. Now Walmart is reducing the number of stores, although they were monopolists in the world, they had the money and resources to make a breakthrough, develop online commerce, automate trading floors. But they didn't. Now it is a company with a good history, but it is already in the past.
It is wrong to expect that Gazprom, Rosneft, metallurgists, power engineers will bring something new. A breakthrough can only be made by a small and medium business.He, too, is different. We are accustomed to perceive it as retail and the service sector. No matter what they say about business support, one store cannot compete with Pyaterochka, their technologies are much more efficient. There is no competition in the same segment between small and large businesses, the big one always wins. But big companies cannot produce new products. And there is a field for small businesses. Startups are needed, and there is no one to create them except for SMEs. Innovative enterprises become large very quickly. In fairness, it must be said that only one percent of such projects grows into big company. But it's worth it, because that one percent is what drives the economy forward. For the sake of this, small and medium-sized businesses should be supported.
— What projects in this area do you remember?
- The most striking example is the Konar company. 10 years ago it was small company, but they found technology, took the best from world practice, and now it big company by world standards. We have a lot of IT projects that are not public. But in Chelyabinsk this cluster is very serious. The network "Red and White", which started 10 years ago. Someone may say that this is not an innovation, but you try to find your format in the retail segment, which simply does not exist anywhere else in the world. This format may well be exported. There is a NEKK company that produces copper sulphate. This substance is always present as a waste in copper production. But vitriol from NEKK goes into bioadditives, feed, pharmacology, cosmetology, etc. The company appeared from scratch, it is a startup in its purest form. And now it is one of the world's top manufacturers, working for export.
- Do you also refer to one of your projects - "General Staff" as such a company?
- No one has such technology, although it is high time to appear. What is bookkeeping? In fact, this is the transfer of data from paper to a computer. Despite the fact that paper carrier no one needs anymore. All reporting takes place in in electronic format. But two-thirds of the time an accountant simply transfers data to paper and back. For what? Everything can be done via smartphone. We are used to the fact that purchases, payment for services, bookings are made through the phone. We came up with a product that allows you to pack the back office into mobile phone. Electronic document management system, accounting software, Internet banking, CRM and ERP systems - all this has existed for a very long time. But all this was separate from each other. We have collected all this into one product that is convenient and understandable for a manager without special accounting education. The head of the enterprise, the owner of the business can do without an accountant, using only our program. But this is not only an electronic solution, but also a responsibility that we have taken upon ourselves.
Outsourcing in Russia has greatly discredited itself.As a rule, an outsourcer is an experienced specialist who quit and began working as a freelancer, with all the ensuing consequences in the form of optionality, irresponsibility, etc. We have a clear, legally fixed relationship with the client, with fines for our mistakes, etc. We spend money on insurance against our mistakes. In the event of an emergency, the client will receive compensation for losses. The responsibility of an outsourcer like us is many times higher than that of a full-time employee.
— Your company is 15 years old, what have you achieved during this time? And how is the crisis affecting business?
— Of the non-capital companies, we are the largest company in our field. In terms of the number of employees and the number of completed projects, we have been leading in Russia for two years already, if we do not take into account companies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the same time, we do this with the Chelyabinsk price tag, despite the fact that the qualifications of our employees are comparable. Our company is diversified. We deal with a wide range of issues: from outsourcing accounting to bringing companies to IPO. Thanks to this diversification, if we fall in one segment, we compensate for it with growth in another area. Despite the fact that the expert community in Avuar is quite versatile and can solve various problems. It is clear that there is less money in the country. But our diversity allows us to balance and grow.
In general, I find myself thinking that it will be a serious challenge for me to work at a company in a period of stability.All the time that I have been doing business, there is a crisis in our country. And I know how to live in this situation. But what to do during stability - no.
- You had your own project to save the Greenflight company, what was it and why was it not approved?
— It was 2015. The idea was to bring the Girnflight project to its logical conclusion. It was created as a federal network company. The idea was very good, with its innovative model. There is still no such company in the country. It is clear that creating a major federal player in the small Chelyabinsk market at a price of 30 thousand rubles per square meter, naively. But Greenflight had a piece of land in the Moscow region, there were ideas for projects in Perm, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg. If all this were realized, it would help offset the costs in Chelyabinsk. In general, this model with projects in different regions would help to balance the companies. Somewhere the profit fell, but somewhere it grew. And that would improve the overall situation. My partner and I wanted to start this process. To do this, it was planned to bring the company to an IPO, to get access to cheap money. Then this idea was considered too optimistic. There were few funds. But there were investors, the bank gave a loan for this idea.
In general, you can always attract investments for a good idea, even now. A friend of mine once told me that he was thinking about where to invest a billion dollars. I decided that I didn’t know something about him, where did he get a billion dollars from? And he replied that if there is a good idea, then there will always be those who want to invest. And I agree with him.
— A traditional question in Lately: why don't you leave Chelyabinsk?
- I was born here and have lived all my life, why should I go somewhere? Yes, the environment is bad. But in the Soviet years, enterprises worked much more intensively, no one had even heard of any filters. What is happening now, this trend is to run away from the city for fresh air, in my opinion, this is the result of more information flow: “bad ecology, you have to leave.” People are suggestible, now on TV, in social networks, in the media they say: "there is nothing to breathe." If you tell a man a hundred times that he is a pig, he will believe it. Here we have the whole city and grunted. Although the problems of ecology in the city need to be addressed. I think if the authorities at least deal with the problem of ecology in the information field open to the population, people will not think about moving. As for other aspects, the mentality does not suit me in Moscow or Sochi. Sochi has a very complex mentality, which has been formed since Soviet times, when everyone wanted to get as much as possible from vacationers. more money, and not necessarily legally. And in one form or another, this approach remains there today. Doing business in such an environment is not easy. Issues are being resolved in Moscow, but nothing is being produced there. And I like to make products, and doing business in Chelyabinsk is easier and more profitable. The Chelyabinsk mentality, in contrast to the "resort" and "capital", assumes that people say, do and think the same thing. I like it that way.
In Chelyabinsk, 365 people were evacuated from the school due to arson in the toiletToday, 16:08
Up to +20 degrees warmer in the Chelyabinsk regionToday, 15:45 Society
At the request of the prosecutor in Chelyabinsk, unfinished construction on the Kashirin Brothers will be demolishedToday, 15:05 Society
In Miass, VAZ knocked down a young girl on a zebra to deathToday, 14:44 Incidents
Bad morning: several Chelyabinsk residents found the wheels of their cars puncturedToday, 14:27 Incidents
Putin approved the criteria for evaluating governorsToday, 14:15 Politics
Texler made his first appointment in the government of the Chelyabinsk regionToday, 14:04 Politics
Life-long love: in Korkino, the couple celebrated a diamond weddingToday, 13:39 Society
Evgeny Teftelev leaves the post of vice-governor of the Chelyabinsk regionToday, 13:21 Politics
“Centennial artifacts are not needed”: an activist tries to save the remains of a stone embankment in ChelyabinskToday, 12:34 Society
IMPORTANT. Candidates for governors of the Chelyabinsk region were allowed to self-nominateToday, 12:30 Politics
In the Urals "ban" rescued a schoolboy from the ice of the lakeToday, 12:00
Public transport will work in Chelyabinsk on Easter nightToday, 11:47 Society
The private broke the jaw of a corporal in Chebarkul and received a real termToday, 11:37 Society
Chelyabinsk citizen arrested for refusing to remove tint from car windowsToday, 11:29 Society
The court denied the Chelyabinsk woman demanding 700 thousand for a fall in a hypermarketToday, 11:17 Society
Residents of Ozersk convicted of extortion of apartments and moneyToday, 11:11 Society
South Ural farmers repair equipment using a 3D printerToday, 10:50 Society
In Ozersk, FSB officers detained underground gunsmithsToday, 10:36 am
Ivan Urgant proposed to make Kim Jong-un the mayor of KopeyskToday, 09:56 Society
Chelyabinsk residents share photos of the April snowfall in social networksToday, 09:52 Society
URALSIB increased the maximum car loan amount to 5 million rublesToday, 09:49 Finance
HELP IS NEEDED. In Chelyabinsk, a 9-year-old child was hospitalized after being hit by a carToday, 09:25 am
Chelyabinsk residents told how they are going to celebrate EasterToday, 09:17 Society
The most mournful day of the year: Good Friday - prohibitions, beliefs and traditionsToday, 07:20 Society
The priest, exiled to the village because of the photo of his wife, was returned to MagnitogorskYesterday, 20:14 Society
More than 80% of Russians consider themselves happyYesterday, 17:13 Society
The police of the South Urals denied allegations of beating a ladyYesterday, 16:52 Society
In Magnitogorsk, unknown persons doused a car with paint and wished death to the ownerYesterday, 16:44
ATTENTION. Traffic will be restricted for 2 days in the Leninsky district of ChelyabinskYesterday, 16:38 Society
Police seized 70 thousand bottles of counterfeit alcohol from a warehouse in ChelyabinskYesterday, 15:52 Society
A lynx fell into a camera trap for the first time in the Zyuratkul National ParkYesterday, 15:45 Society
Wet snow and cooling down to -5 will come to the South UralsYesterday, 15:43 Society
IMPORTANT. South Ural children will not be allowed into camps without vaccination against tick-borne encephalitisYesterday, 14:50 Society
The director of the company in Magnitogorsk underpaid taxes by 13 millionYesterday, 14:43 Society
Direct access
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Vice Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region
To be more precise, the area of responsibility of the deputy head of the region Alexey Ovakimyan includes increasing the investment attractiveness of the Chelyabinsk region, financial recovery enterprises, expanding the tax base, as well as ensuring effective management state property and prevention of deliberate bankruptcies.
About this, as well as about ongoing and planned investment projects and proposals, about whether the South Urals is becoming more interesting for foreign and Russian partners, readers of the Access News Agency can ask Alexey Ovakimyan personally.
Please note that all messages are moderated. The right to answer personal questions remains with the guest of the rubric.
Questions and answers
Igor Pavlov:You are responsible for investment attractiveness, Klepov - for attracting investments, Murzina - for implementation investment policy. Does this mean irresponsibility? How can several people be responsible for the same thing?
Attracting investments to the region is not my exclusive, but a priority of the governor's policy. All ministers and deputies of the governor of the Chelyabinsk region are responsible for attracting investments in their area of responsibility. My area of responsibility is legal support investment activity and organizing the efficient use of the region's resources (land, subsoil, property, including bankrupt enterprises) to attract specialized investors.
Victor:Where is our region in terms of the volume of local and foreign investments in comparison with other regions of the country? Do you have accurate information on this issue, and not just your opinion?
The information you are interested in can be seen on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Chelyabinsk Region: econom-chelreg.ru.
Aigul:There are more and more children in Churilovo, could you somehow make sports sections there, especially women's football, it is becoming more and more popular, and if it appears in Churilovo, I will be very very grateful to you, thank you! :)
Churilovo is one of the most promising and actively developed regions of the city. Of course, all the necessary infrastructure is also planned there. Your message about the sports complex for women's football seems to me very interesting. We will certainly coordinate this issue with the administration of the city of Chelyabinsk.
Vitaly:Alexey Dmitrievich, hello. Recently, a lot has been said about the fact that our region should be positioned more as a tourist or archaeological region (Arkaim), then, accordingly, people will reach out, and this will increase the budgets of the territories. However, in many ways, things go no further than words. Do you have plans for a similar direction or are they still unpromising?
South Ural as tourist region it is necessary to "untwist" practically from "zero". However, this is being done and will be done as soon as possible. The economic and social impact of this work is colossal. Each area has its own highlights (caves, monuments, lakes, the same Arkaim and "Demidov's places"). We are preparing proposals for investors for the construction of health, leisure and entertainment complexes. We will develop an information campaign on tourism in the Southern Urals.
For some reason, it used to be believed that people should come to the administration and look for a way out to the "right person" in order to get land plot. Now the approach is changing. If a person comes with an interesting project, land can be given even for free, provided that it will be built people need and area object.
Ivan Georgievich:Mr Minister, in recent months on television they show a lot about the fact that delegations come to us different countries agreements are signed. And what real joint projects have already been implemented, and what else can we expect?
Foreign investors really paid attention to the Southern Urals. This is the result of the governor's trips, but the long-term closeness of the region and caution foreign companies make themselves known. From the first meeting to the construction of the plant, as a rule, more than one year passes. In 2011, after repeated negotiations, several foreign (mostly Italian) companies have already registered in Chelyabinsk. We are still waiting. I think by the end of the year the results will be visible to a wide range of people.
Olga Nikolaevna:You once said in your speech that it is necessary to carry out an inventory of regional property in the region in order to preserve what could be useful to the South Urals, and to offer investors those objects that are used inefficiently. Has such work been carried out, and what is its result?
The inventory of regional and municipal property is not an easy task. A lot of objects (and even enterprises) were not included in the property register. Apparently, we still have work to do to protect the rights of the state to those objects that were once "lost" by the region for various reasons.
However, by 01.07.11 the inventory will be completed. In the second half of 2011, fundamental decisions will be made on measures for the most efficient use of it.
Konstantin:Alexey Dmitrievich, in your opinion, what does investment attractiveness region? Convenient geographic location? Here, take our region. The capacities of the once largest defense enterprises are idle. That is, there is all the infrastructure. I understand that your task is to find investors for these projects. But, on the other hand, various ratings mention the Chelyabinsk region as the worst subject of the Russian Federation from an environmental point of view and occupies almost the first ranks in corruption cases (bribes, kickbacks). Is there a system of formation of attractiveness - investment - for the region? Do any of the heads municipalities at least some ideas about this, except for winter resorts and summer bases?
The Chelyabinsk region has all the prerequisites for attracting investments. Even mutually exclusive things, like the industry of Karabash and the nature of Uvildy (at a distance of 8 kilometers) are also our highlight.
The most important thing is to create prerequisites for attracting investors:
1. Regulatory framework (benefits, simplified procedure for solving administrative issues, etc.);
2. Opening up logistics corridors that were previously lost. Chelyabinsk is located on the direct line of the transport corridor "Western Europe - Western China". At the same time, until now, road, rail and air routes have been laid around the region. It is possible to change the situation already this year. The inflow of investments into the region after the change in the logistics scheme will be incomparable with any other measures.
3. Well, and of course, personnel potential. Attracting specialists to the region and training their own personnel (who do not leave the region) is one of the prerequisites for investment growth.
Daniel:Dear Alexey Dmitrievich, how seriously has your life changed since your appointment as vice-governor? You manage to deal with the affairs of the Avuar company, and by the way, who replaced you at this post? Several times I had the opportunity to meet with you at seminars, and it seemed to me that you are a rather gentle and rather intelligent person. Isn't it hard to be a vice-governor with such qualities?
Of course, it was easier to work in Avuar, but working in the government is an element of professional self-realization. The asset has always been a partnership, so my departure was not extreme for the company. Today, Avuar is managed by Konstantin Igonin and Stanislav Mironov. As for personal qualities, I think they are not the worst for an official. Look, in Europe no one yells at anyone, but they live no worse than ours.
Yuri Yaroslavovich:A few days ago, Yurevich transferred to you the right to sell land plots under cottage construction. How much time will it take to prepare all kinds of rules, instructions, resolutions, and is it possible to do this according to the "one window" principle?
Attracting investors for the development of the South Urals is indeed a priority issue and is directly related to the creation tourism cluster in the region. Moreover, land and property are one of the main sources tax revenue local budgets.
Until the end of the year, the issue of allocating land plots to everyone will be resolved. You just need to understand that land will not be distributed in a chaotic manner, but according to an agreed plan, without infringing on the interests of the rest of the population (in particular, without restricting access to water bodies for those who wish) and in compliance with investment obligations for the construction of pre-agreed facilities, be it villages, bases recreation, sanatoriums, etc.
"One window" at registration of documents will be obligatory. In the region, the regional "property fund" will be such a body.
Ivan Stepanovich:The Chelyabinsk region has always been a machine-building region, and we cannot get away from this yet. Another thing is that the connection between enterprises and science has been lost? And besides, not every plant will undertake to create a "probe" of the inventor, and here you would be useful as a person in charge of investors. Look at what SUSU food students have come up with - there is nothing like it all over the world. And ChTZ has been producing tractors for 20-40 years, and continues, the plant has lost a sense of modernity and reality. Maybe if this enterprise were resold, then it would be possible to create a promising machine-building direction, including for the Ural Industrial project, or new models of municipal equipment?