Residents of Industrial Parks

In Russia there are about a hundred of industrial sites that meet criteria outlined by the Targeted Investment Program (TIP) for industrial parks. The number of operating facilities is nearly fifty, with greenfield projects (i.e. projects implemented from the very beginning) dominating. At that, the most part of sites is concentrated in the European part of Russia (Central, Volga and North-Western Federal Districts), close to key sales markets.

The total area of operating parks is almost 17.5 thousand hectares, while the production floor area approaches 4 million square meters. The largest, by the occupied area, operating parks are Vorsino in Kaluga Region, “Sheksna” in Vologda Region, the Industrial and Logistic Park in Novosibirsk Region. The area of each of them is about 2 thousand hectares.

Not only regional authorities, interested in attracting investments, demonstrate great interest in industrial parks. Business representatives, for whom location in an industrial park is the opportunity of launching a project within the shortest possible period, take an interest in them as well.

Despite active development of industrial parks and regular launch of new projects, their occupation rate remains to be rather low – about half of the areas are empty.

The status of a resident of an industrial or a technology park means for a company some combination of rights and responsibilities. On the one hand, a resident can claim obtaining state support; on the other hand, it must be registered in the territory of the subject as a tax payer. Many parks impose requirements to the kind of activity of prospective residents in accordance with the specialization of the park. Also, the minimum level for capital investment can be established; in order to confirm the planned volume of investments, the company which intends to obtain the status of a resident, submits a business plan, which includes technical, organizational, financial, marketing characteristics of the project, as well as risks its implementation is associated with. Besides, the park can be intended for small and medium business entities, which sets requirements concerning the size of the company that wants to be a park resident.

The combination of these requirements enables making an industrial park not just a cheap leasehold area, but also supporting small and medium business, promoting development of priority kinds of activities, ensuring payback for the park, attracting foreign investors, i.e. using advantages of such a site to the maximum.

At the present moment the resident membership of industrial parks is rather inhomogeneous. For example, there are almost 250 residents in KIP “Master” in Naberezhnye Chelny, most of which deal with the motor industry. A motor-car construction cluster has formed in industrial parks of Kaluga Region. In Yaroslavl Region they intend to form a pharmaceutical cluster: TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and “Nikomed” have settled in the industrial park “Novoselki”. A plant for metalwork production of “Lindab Building”, LLC and a plant for assembly of excavators and forklifts of “Komatsu Manufacturing Rus”, LLC are situated in the same park.

Filling the space with different residents for an industrial park is a guarantee of risk minimization (in terms of both the profile of activity and property). On the other hand, observing the industry specialization enables increasing effectiveness of support of companies’ activities and developing cooperation among residents.