Translated material
Drives without problems
Vladimir Putin was shown a car plant that does not require state subsidies
It seems that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is tired of the endless problems of Russian automakers, who constantly demand budget money, blackmail with mass layoffs, and force the head of government to personally negotiate with foreign partners. Yesterday he visited an automobile plant, the owners of which do not ask for anything, even in a crisis they hire workers and invest their own considerable money - 774 million euros. At the Volkswagen Group Rus LLC enterprise in the Kaluga region, the prime minister literally rested his soul, inspecting the workshops and launching a new full car assembly line.At the plant located in the Grabtsevo technology park, the head of government was told that in the spring of next year the production of a new A-class sedan, fully adapted to Russian conditions, based on the new Polo with a still secret name and an expected cost of about 440 thousand rubles will begin. At a meeting of the government commission on regional development in the administration of the Kaluga region, Mr. Putin, using specific examples and with knowledge of the matter, discussed exactly how local authorities should act so that only such successful companies operate on the territory of other subjects of the federation.
Before the Prime Minister arrived, the press was given a tour of the plant. Company representative Vladimir Shultz, head of the department for technical development and localization, said that the new line, which is awaiting Mr. Putin’s light hand any hour, is unique by world standards, since it is designed to produce five models simultaneously. The difference between a complete knockdown cycle and a large-unit assembly is one thing: in the first case, the body is stamped on site, the remaining units are imported ready-made. Whereas “screwdriver” production consists of restoring on a Russian assembly line a car that was previously completely assembled and then dismantled somewhere in Europe. Until yesterday, 13 models were assembled using the “screwdriver” method at the Volkswagen plant near Kaluga. With the commissioning of the new full-cycle line, five more models will be added.
But a real complete assembly will appear when parts produced in Russia begin to be used for it. So far, in both cases, all components are imported. By 2012, the plant expects to achieve 30 percent localization. For Russian models like the Tiguan and the new sedan - a little earlier.
Expansion of production will require additional labor. Despite the crisis and the fall of the automobile market in Russia by almost half, Volkswagen plans to recruit another 1,200 people and increase the team to 3 thousand. The crisis did not in any way affect the company’s investment plans - of the planned investments in Russian production, 774 million euros have already been spent 550 million. The rest will be used over the next year.
The tour of the plant for the Prime Minister began in the exhibition hall, where all the best examples of cars produced by the international concern Volkswagen Group were presented: pink Bentley, yellow Lamborghini. Mr. Putin and the leaders of the concern found a common language without any problems - it turned out to be German. General concerns are about the benefit of Russian consumers, for whom cars produced in Kaluga will be 10% cheaper than imported ones.
And yet, we couldn’t do without a reminder about AvtoVAZ. Tactless journalists asked which car was better - the Niva owned personally by Mr. Putin or any Volkswagen. The Prime Minister diplomatically noted that one’s own is always better.
Having launched the line and admonished the assembled leaders of the enterprise and the region, Vladimir Putin encouraged Volkswagen, saying that the Russian car market has good prospects, and wished the two countries - Germany and Russia - to continue to develop fruitful cooperation. For this purpose, it will be useful to meet more often: for example, today the Prime Minister will receive a delegation from German business circles. But it seems that the head of government would much more like to see another meeting - the national teams of Russia and Germany in the final of the World Cup, which Vladimir Putin allowed himself to dream about in his closing speech. “The Germans have more chances, because the German team is theirs, and the Russian team is also theirs,” the Russian prime minister mysteriously remarked, meaning that VW is the title sponsor of our country’s national team. Perhaps the Germans have a better chance in any case, because the sponsor of their own team is the Mercedes-Benz concern.
After a pleasant and easy conversation, the head of government arrived at the regional administration for a meeting. Before the meeting, the prime minister toured an exhibition of investment projects in Kaluga, where good news was prepared especially for the arrival of the distinguished guest - industrial assembly at the Peugeot-Citroen and Mitsubishi plants will begin much earlier than planned, already in March 2010.
The successes of foreign companies did not affect the critical attitude of the head of government towards local officials (we were talking about local authorities in Russia in general), whose work was discussed at a meeting of the government commission. In his opening remarks, Mr. Putin cited depressing facts: last year, ineffective spending in the field of health care and education at the local budget level reached 147 billion rubles, in the field of state and municipal administration - 116 billion, or every third ruble. Despite the fact that even in a crisis year, the bureaucracy spent 4% more money than in the previous one. And in 2008, by 30%.
At the same time, judging by the prime minister’s words, the crisis is being actively used as an argument in defense of one’s own slowness in implementing reforms. “Crisis events that have reduced regional budget revenues cannot serve as an excuse for refusing reforms,” the head of government warned. Among the necessary reforms, the Prime Minister sees the introduction of a cruel dependence of the salaries of public sector employees on the results of their work. “When, if not now, should we abandon ineffective spending,” Vladimir Putin urged. “Further increases in funding will not have any effect without reforms.” There was probably not a person in the room who did not understand the justice of the prime minister’s words. But it was also obvious that they had the least regard for the “local” Kaluga officials, who in recent years have managed to demonstrate that the most ordinary Russian region is quite capable of attracting the most eminent investors.