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1. What significance may partnership relations in the north-western regions of Russia have for improving the competitiveness of your products at remote markets?
were put to the heads of administration of several north-western regions specially for our journal.
1 The Vologda region share in export supplies from the north-western region is 36%, naturally, we are keen on our production competitiveness. Our well-matched policies in forming prices for railway transportation, energy sources can lead to a considerable reduction of these components in the final production price. Our big problem is the lack of organized export. The world practice for complex production exporters is to agree about prices, quotes and sales markets. We can and must do the same. For example, the northern economic region can easily reach an agreement about various aspects of timber supplies. Or, take the mining industry as an example. At present, the town of Cherepovets, Vologda region, is the main consumer of Vorkuta coal and the Kolsk peninsula ores. But if we fail to arrive at an agreement here, in the North, we will purchase the raw materials with greater profit in south or central Russia, or even abroad. The subject of our last conversation with Governor of St.Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev was the creation of new uniting structures. I consider the number of the existing ones insufficient. We should establish such ones that will be engaged in the analysis and prediction of developing economic situation. No other north-western territory possesses such a strong scientific base as St.Petersburg. I would suggest that St.Petersburg, with its powerful intellectual potential should take upon itself the role of the capital of the North. 2 Today it is often more important to sell than to produce. That is why our region is interested so much in projects, dealing with the development of ports and transport infrastructure. It is not just us who need these. I visited Komi some time ago, and they seem to have the same problems: they have products to sell but they have no way to seaports. Or, consider energy projects. We own a common energy system, but it is so disorganized! The price for electricity rises several times on its way from producer to consumer. and the diferrence lands in other people’s pockets. We must build new power plants together, as well as expand the existing ones. For instance, the Murmansk region finds it hard to advance in this direction independently, and the partcipation of several subjects of the Federation would certainly help. The Russian Federation government has already passed the “North-West textiles” program, whose participants are St.Petersburg, the Vologda, Pskov and Novgorod regions. In St.Petersburg, I got interested in the production of the Kirov plant agricultural combines”Maral”, adapted for the conditions of the North. Here, too, several territories could cooperate. 3 Our traditional export is timber, metal, fertilizers,machine-building products,paper,glass. In respect of agricultural products, we are able to “feed” all our neighbours in the North-West by massive supplies of them. In turn, we could use goods produced in St.Petersburg, such as lacquer, paints, artificial leather, electronics. Besides, in future we plan to start assembling those wonderful Vologda trolley buses not only with completing sets produced in Czek Republic but also with nationally produced ones.We have already made arrangements about the supplies from the Kirov region and St.Petersburg.
1 New markets will, no doubt, appear, but it is clear already that the process will only take place on a new basis. I am talking, first of all, about joint stock companies. We have come to realize the necessity of coordinating and predicting the activity connected with the market development. In the conditions of commercial liberalisation, the uncoordinated exporters beat down the prices causing economic harm on each other. In neighboring Finland and Sweden, the exporters unite. Within a regular competition, it helps them to conquer the market. We should take the beaten track. The final result of this work, I guess, would be the creation of an independent group for coordinating foreign economic activities by all authorities in the North-West region. I think that its headquaters should be located in St.Petersburg. 2 Among the possible joint investment projects I would emphasize the communication ones. We are already collaborating with Finnish and Norwegian companies. A while ago, in the framework of so-called Barents-collaboration, a decision to create a commutation center of the Barents region in Petrozavodsk was made. At the same time this field is useful for partnership with St.Petersburg. It is very disadvantageous to make immense investments alone. I think that together we will be able to choose the most profitable way. The energy saving programs, many of which are still being developed, are extremely important. We must use the scientific base of St.Petersburg actively. In particular, the project of building peat power plants and other energy making enterprises in Karelia could be realized by joint efforts. The environmental project of using the Ladoga lake can also be realized only together. Alone, we will not manage to realize the still inapplicable program of making xerox paper out of the very birchwood we are selling. If one considers the opportunities and needs of St.Petersburg, the huge amount of raw material available in Karelia itself, in the Leningrad and Vologda regions then the creation of such an enterprise costing 500-600 million dollars is undoubtedly possible but only with the assistance of the Russian Federation government. 3 We have been purchasing and are ready to purchase the agriculture and cattle-farming products. From St.Petersburg we are receiving the light industry products. Though we are consuming more and more imported goods now, we are still ready to purchase power plants - products of the St.Petersburg machinery building complex. We are traditional suppliers of magazine paper and paper bags and we can supply paper for the packing cardboard enterprise which is being created by the Swedes in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region.
1 I hope I will disclose no secret if I say that Russian products lag behind their western counterparts by a long way. This is why we should not be competing in foreign markets; if we do it would only harm our country’s as well as individual enterprises’ economy. It is in quality of goods that we should be competing in home markets. Taking into consideration the fact that north-western enterprises are working in, approximately, the same conditions we must unite our efforts to strengthen our position in world markets, and one aspect of this process is establishing uniform terms for our production supplies. 2 One of the Komi Republic investment projects, the realization of which calls for the joint effort of the North-West subjects, is the construction building of a railway line, connecting Archangelsk-Karpogory-Syktyvkar-Kudymkar-Perm.The price of the Komi-Archangelsk part is estimated at 245mln. US dollars.The working documents for the first 20 km. in the Karpogory direction have been prepared, with building work to begin in 1997. The founders of the joint-stock company “Belkomor”, created specially to implement the project, are the Heads of administration of the Archangelsk and Perm regions, the Komi Republic and the Komi-Permyak autonomous region, the “North-West”association, the economic committee on the Urals region development program, as well as a number of major companies and banks in these territories. To put the railway line into action is of strategic importance for Russia, since the new railway line will provide Siberia and the Urals with the shortest way to Archangelsk and Murmansk, and with the completion of the Karelsk part — to ports of Finland. The oil company “Komi TEK” does a lot of organization work to help realize a new byline of the main pipeline Charyaga — Usinsk building project, which is to form a part of the future Baltic tube-line system. The construction is to be carried out by a joint-stock company with a consortium. The provisional cost of the program is 113,2 mln. US dollars. Indeed, there are tens of projects in the North-West requiring joint actions by several partners.When problems are of scientific or design nature we can make a great use of St.Petersburg’s huge science and technology potential. It is obvious, that the equipment and the required completing sets can be supplied by machine-building, tube-rolling and other type enterprises of the Russian Federation, participating in the “North-West” association, provided they can reach an optimal combination of price and quality. As a rule, cooperation proves effective if it starts at the level of financing large-scale programs. Thus, for the construction of Seregov “Extra” salt plant (seven specifications with a total production of 80 000 tons a year) we intend to make an extensive use of attracted finances, such as bank credits, direct and portfolio investments, other investments by interested parties. 3 The Komi Republic would welcome supplies of products from St.Petersburg and other regions of the North-West. Every year we import about 5,5 mln. tons of ferrous ores, 45 000 t. of rolled metal, 135 t. of cast iron,1,5000 t. of steel cables,220 t. of welded steel framework, 720 t. of welding electrodes, 4000 t. of mineral fertilizers, 30000 t. of cement, 290 000 square metres of building glass, 62 t. of linen fibre, 4,2 mln. asbestos cement slates as well as tractors, wood processors, steel tubes, synthetic resins, water mixers, ceramic plates, lacquer- and painting materials.
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