Rustam Minnikhanov meets Vice-President of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France Philippe Meunier

05.12.2017

On December 5, at Tatarstan Government House, at his meeting with Vice-President of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France Philippe Meunier, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that the republic attaches great importance to the development of cooperation with the regions of France as part of Russian-French relations.

Welcoming the guests, Minnikhanov noted a significant increase in mutual trade for nine months of 2017. He said that the results of trade are positive and added that despite difficult political moments, relations between Russia and France as well as those at the interregional level are good.

"We want that French business choose Tatarstan as a platform for entering the Russian market," Minnikhanov said. “The region provides every condition for this, including the infrastructure, tax privileges in special economic zones. Moreover, the territory of advanced socio-economic development in Naberezhnye Chelny is also developing."

According to him, cooperation can be particularly successful in such areas as power-engineering, petrochemical industry, automotive industry, information technology, agro-industrial sector, medicine, and construction.

Minnikhanov also reminded that following the 2018 FIFA World Cup final draw, the French football team will play at the stadium in Kazan. He invited his French colleagues to Kazan to attend the matches of the upcoming event.

"I am sure that during your current visit to Kazan, my colleagues will tell you about the most interesting projects implemented in Tatarstan in more detail," Minnikhanov said addressing Philippe Meunier.

In his turn, the vice-president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region thanked Minnikhanov for the organization of the visit and the eventful programme. He said that the French delegation included representatives of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises, entrepreneurs interested in developing relations with businessmen of Tatarstan.

"Cooperation with Russia is one of priorities in our work," Philippe Meunier said. "Tatarstan, as one of the developed regions of Russia, is attractive to us from the point of view of developing economic relations."

Philippe Meunier made a brief presentation of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, where he outlined the areas of the region’s development and its strengths. For example, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the second region of France in terms of population, production of gross regional product. The region is highly developed in the field of agriculture (43 per cent of the area is agricultural land), as well as the second region of France in terms of export.

Philippe Meunier suggested starting work on the preparation of a memorandum on interaction between Tatarstan and the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region.

Minnikhanov supported this proposal and gave an errand to set up a working group to prepare the document. The working group from Tatarstan will include representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the republic and Tatarstan Investment Development Agency.

Then French businessmen – members of the delegation briefly told the meeting about their companies. Among them are such areas as security systems, including cyber security, the production of equipment for the processing of agricultural products, assistance to enterprises to enter international markets (contract activities), activities in the field of architecture and design of buildings.

At the end of the meeting, an Agreement on cooperation between the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises and Tatarstan Investment Development Agency was signed in the presence of Rustam Minnikhanov, Philippe Meunier and other participants.


Tatarstan President's Press Office, Elena Britvina