Rustam Minnikhanov opens International commercial Transport Exhibition in Kazan

On 22 September the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Albert Karimov, the Chairman of the Council of the Association of Russian Automakers – the Director General of the KAMAZ Automaker Sergey Kogogin and the Director General of the “ITE Expo International” Dmitry Zavgorodniy took part in a ceremony of opening the International Commercial Transport Exhibition “Comtrans-2026” held at the Kazan Expo Exhibition Center on 22-25 September.

Comtrans is the largest specialized exposition in Russia uniting manufacturers, suppliers and consumers of commercial vehicles and in the current year it is for the first time held outside Moscow.

Welcoming participants of the event, Rustam Minnikhanov noted that it is not by chance that Tatarstan has been chosen the venue for the exhibition as the republic is one of the key centers of domestic auto production, which occupies up to 7.4% of the amount of industrial products employing more than 40 thousand residents of the republic.

“Trucks are a hallmark of Tatarstan and are known all over the world. This year we marked the 50th anniversary of the first KAMAZ truck production and our auto giant occupies 40% of the domestic trucks market. More than 200 thousand vehicles have been produced for the last five years,” he emphasized and informed that in addition to trucks, the republic also produces buses, executive-class vehicles, agricultural machinery powered by natural gas and components for them.

The Rais of the republic told that Tatarstan has active interaction with producers in other regions of the country and said that the exhibition is a good platform for a mutually beneficial cooperation of all players of the transport branch and one of drivers of the accelerated development of the automotive industry.

In his turn Albert Karimov stated the special importance of the event and said: “This is a strategic direction for the development of our automotive industry, enshrined in the updated automotive industry development strategy through 2035. We will support the development of this segment by tools we have, which are aimed at both incentivizing investments and raising the demand so that the companies develop further.”

Then Rustam Minnihanov looked round the exposition where about 120 Russian and international companies, including automakers from Belarus, Turkey and China exhibited their vehicles and their components.