Rustam Minnikhanov, Mikhail Abyzov and Vsevolod Vukolov visit the Alabuga Special Economic Zone

On April 25, during their working trip to Tatarstan, Russia's Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov and Head of the Federal Service for Labour and Employment Vsevolod Vukolov visited the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (Yelabuga municipal region).

Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, Aide to Tatarstan President Albert Nafigin, Minister of Economy of the republic Artem Zdunov, Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Protection of the republic Elmira Zaripova, Director General of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone Timur Shagivaleev and Head of Yelabuga municipal region Gennady Yemelyanov accompanied the guests. 

During a detour of the zone's territory, Abyzov and Vukolov were told about the infrastructure of the special economic zone, work being carried out with investors, conditions created for the development of business and comfortable life of its residents, as well as the training of workers.

Then, the guests visited the production facilities of the Ford Sollers plant, the largest resident company of the zone. First Vice President and Executive Director of Ford Sollers Adil Shirinov said that the car company has three plants in Tatarstan, two of which are located in the Alabuga special economic zone, including the car assembly plant and the engine plant. The total number of employees exceeds 1,300 people. Last year, 30,000 cars came off the assembly line, he said.

According to Minnikhanov, Ford Sollers pays serious attention to the localization and development of the domestic market of automotive components. In particular, the engine plant uses local raw materials and receives all the main components from Russian suppliers.

During a short tour of the company, a complete assembly process from welding parts to final quality control was demonstrated to the guests, who noted high technological equipment of the plant, in particular, the use of industrial robots.

After that, Mikhail Abyzov and Vsevolod Vukolov got acquainted with the activities of the Alabuga International School (AIS), located near the special economic zine in the Three Bears cottage settlement. Both children of foreign specialists and young residents of Yelabuga attend the school.

It was noted that last year AIS became the first international school in the Volga region, which received the official status of a member of the Council of International Schools (CIS), thus confirming its compliance with international standards for organizing school life and academic work.