The event, organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, took place on April 14, 2023, as part of the Russian Business Weeks with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and Arctic, and the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation. The key topics of the Forum were import substitution in the mining industry, as well as mechanisms for investment activity of enterprises and measures of state support for the industry.
The Forum included meetings of four working groups:
- Special investment and tax regimes for the mining industry
- Cargo logistics: prospects for the development of railway and port infrastructure
- Automation and digital transformation of mining enterprises
- Local power supply for investment projects in the mining industry
Top officials of leading mining companies and mechanical engineering enterprises attended the meetings: Baimskaya Management Company LLC, Rusal OK, Raspadskaya Coal Company LLC, Rosgeologia JSC, AGD DIAMONDS JSC, Vostsibugol Company LLC, Metalloinvest Management Company LLC, PGMK LLC, EVRAZ LLC, COULSTAR LLC, CHETRA LLC, BELAZ OJSC, TYAZHMASH JSC, RIMERA JSC, UGMK OJSC, Kuzbassrazrezugol Management Company JSC, SUEK JSC, Razrez LLC Taylepskiy, PJSC Seligdar, etc.
Within the framework of the Working Groups, the Forum participants formulated proposals to the Government of the Russian Federation on the development of the industry, including issues of additional measures of state support, attracting funding for new investment projects, introducing digital technologies in mining engineering, and eliminating regulatory barriers in the transportation of mining and metallurgical cargo.
At the Forum, the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (FEDC) and Rusatom Overseas Joint-Stock Company (RAOS JSC, part of Rosatom State Corporation) signed an agreement on cooperation in the construction of the first Russian low-power nuclear power plant in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). As part of the cooperation, FEDC will assist Rosatom State Corporation in choosing the most effective measures of state support for this project in the Russian Arctic. The site for the placement of the ground-based SNPP will be the territory of the Ust-Yansky Ulus in the northern part of Yakutia.
Following the meetings of the working groups, a plenary session of the Forum was held, which was attended by Shokhin Alexander Nikolaevich, President of the RSPP; Mochalnikov Sergey Viktorovich, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation; Bobrakov Anatoly Yuryevich, Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic; Petrov Evgeny Ignatyevich, Head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use; Gorkov Sergey Nikolaevich, General Director - Chairman of the Board of JSC Rosgeologia and other key industry participants. The moderator of the plenary session was Vdovin Igor Aleksandrovich, Member of the Board of the RSPP, Chairman of the RSPP Committee on Investment Policy, Development Institutions and Export Support.
One of the key topics voiced during the Plenary Session was support measures and investment instruments for mining projects. Among the challenges, the industry faces today, forum participants named the need to reorient itself from familiar markets to new ones, as well as the unavailability of equipment, which is aggravated by problems with the supply of spare parts, consumables and service.
Participants also noted that today not all support mechanisms and institutions take into account the specifics of the industry. Subsoil users drew attention to the need to amend the standards of the Industrial Development Fund. The existing mechanism for financing new projects through the IDF has a number of significant limitations that make it impossible to use it to implement the import substitution program: the list of industries financed by the development institute does not include enterprises with OKVED related to the Ministry of Natural Resources, and most mining companies have exactly these OKVEDs as their main ones. In addition, systemic support for import substitution is needed, including the development of an insurance mechanism for the purchase of pilot lots.
At the plenary session, experts outlined the importance of accelerated infrastructure development and the elimination of bottlenecks with the maximum attraction of private investment. Today, transport and logistics problems that are extremely acute for the sector - rising tariffs, problems at the Eastern Polygon limit the possibility of reorientation to new export destinations. Many tasks have been formulated in terms of digitalization and automation of the sector - the use of drones, robotics, digital twins, artificial intelligence and other solutions that will radically increase the efficiency of the sector and reach a new level of industrial safety.
The mechanism of agreements on the protection and encouragement of capital investments has been significantly updated, but a number of issues still require revision. In particular, the vagueness of the rules for combining SPPC with other investment regimes and government support measures, the practice of assessing a new investment project by the region, without which it is now impossible to conclude a SPPC ("regional barrier"), is also not fully formed, the lack of a formed practice of applying a stabilization clause.
The initiatives formulated within the framework of the Forum will be sent to the relevant commissions of the State Council of the Russian Federation to prepare a list of proposals for the development and support of the industry.
Official Forum site: investminingforum.ru
Contacts:
tel.: +7 (495) 481-39-30
e-mail: info@investminingforum.ru
2023-04-17