RusAg and the Government of Kuzbass, represented by Chairman of the Board Boris Listov and Governor Sergey Tsivilev respectively, signed a cooperation agreement at the Eastern Economic Forum.
‘Kuzbass is often referred to as Russia’s industrial heart because it has impressive steel-making, coal-mining and chemical operations. But Kemerovo Region has a high agricultural potential, too, including export-driven agriculture, and has increased its supplies of grain and oil and fat products. And we could see that farmers, who are offering regionally a variety of high-quality fresh products, wanted to deepen their expertise. That is why we launched Farmer's School in Kuzbass, whose first graduates are now beginning to put their business plans into practice. Some of them are involved with city farming, which is a unique specialty. Out-of-the-box approaches such as these are particularly fascinating, given the specific features of the region,’ said Boris Listov, RusAg’s Chairman of the Board.
‘Investments are essential to Kuzbass’s dynamic growth. Under the development programme to 2024 alone, Kuzbass will receive up to RUB 51 billion in federal investments for construction and upgrade, new infrastructure and tourism development. Agriculture is also important, and investing in it will give an additional boost to the non-coal sector of the economy. All in all, the agreement we signed today provides more than RUB 9 billion in investments,’ said Governor Sergei Tsivilev.
The parties have agreed to implement investment programmes and projects to develop industry, agriculture, transport and housing infrastructure in Kuzbass.
As an example, investment projects aimed at using free arable land for agricultural purposes and at constructing livestock facilities in the region will receive about RUB 2.4 billion and RUB 6.5 billion respectively before 2025. Elevator construction in Promyshlennovsky district, a project involving an investment of RUB 500 million, is to be completed by 2023. Pilot projects will be undertaken for a comprehensive development of rural areas in Novokuznetsky, Guryevsky and Leninsk-Kuznetsky municipal districts.
The agreement also aims to develop a credit system for individuals, companies and individual entrepreneurs in Kuzbass, involving programmes for SMEs, government programme Comprehensive Rural Development, actions to improve financial literacy of consumers and SMEs and to develop cooperation with regional agribusinesses, including for agricultural exports, etc.
Finally, the agreement intends to create conditions for attracting investment to Kuzbass, help industrial manufacturers ramp up investment activities (including by creating industrial and technology parks and areas of advanced socio-economic growth) and to use government programmes to develop infrastructure at single-industry towns.