Opportunities galore!

The Nizhny Novgorod Region is one of the more economically advanced in Russia, accounting for about two per cent of the nation's combined gross regional product. Due to its geographical location and a lack of mineral resources, the region has built up strong research and industrial capacities with high-tech manufacturing playing a key role. It contributes three per cent of Russia's industrial output, and ranks sixth nationally and first in the Volga Region in terms of manufacturing production levels.

Whereas almost all types of manufacturing can be found in the region, major industries include the car industry, metallurgy and petroleum refining. The region makes 56 % of trucks, about 44 % of buses, 56 % of auto engines, about 55% of tempered glass, 34 percent of sheet glass, and about 20 % of steel pipes.

The Nizhny Novgorod Development Strategy up to 2020 was adopted by the region's government in 2006 and is being successfully implemented. Its primary long-term goals are to ensure leadership in the automotive sector, create Russia's major manufacturing and distribution centre, and unlock the region's educational and scientific potential.

While manufacturing capacities are growing, products are becoming more competitive . This can be seen by rising external demand. International exports, dominated by industrial products, are increasing, with a growth rate of 138.3 % in 2007.

The region's defence industry, including the Burevestnik Central Research Institute, a leading Russian player Gidromash, the Sokol aircraft factory, and the Nizhny Novgorod Radio Equipment Research Institute, supply armaments and military equipment to India.

The GAZ Group is working with a number of Indian companies on the component supply front, and is looking for partners to set up joint production ventures. To broaden its Indian supplier base and develop other forms of cooperation, the company opened a representative office in India in 2008.

Trade value between the Nizhny Novgorod Region and India reached US$40 million in 2007. During three quarters of 2008, trade with India rose 56.1 % year-on-year, to US$44.8 million; in a sign that Nizhny Novgorod and Indian companies are increasingly keen to develop cooperation.

Considering the evolution of relations between Russia and India, the most promising areas for cooperation are energy, machine building, aerospace, metallurgy, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, IT and telecom, agriculture, consumer goods and service.

The Nizhny Novgorod delegation at the Russian national exhibition is led by Governor Valeriy Shantsev. The delegation includes the region's Industry and Innovation Minister Nikolay Sataev, Investment Policy Minister Dmitry Svatkovsky, and Vladimir Luzyanin, President of the Nizhny Novgorod Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

The business community is represented by heads of the region's major companies and organisations, such as the Afrikantov Design Bureau, Rosaviaspetskomplekt, the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre - National Experimental Physics Research Institute, and others. Companies from Nizhny Novgorod will present innovative products, many of which are unique and are part of the nation's wealth.

The Afrikantov Design Bureau will present technology for mini-nuclear power plants. The offshore power plant is delivered, fully factory-assembled, to offshore location, and can serve as a reliable source of power, along with producing fresh drinking water. The less powerful onshore plant can be used in smaller villages or at small-scale industrial units.

The Federal Nuclear Centre will present an Open Technology Park in the Satis village, Diveevo District, with construction currently in full swing and sixteen companies focusing on IT, power engineering and medical equipment already registered. Also on show will be a revolutionary system for computer modeling of nuclear power facilities, that already attracted significant interest in the US and Europe.

The Institute of Applied Physics will exhibit an optical tomograph, a microwave treatment device and an ultrasonic rail tester, which can be used in railway maintenance, medicine and nanotechnology.

The Institute of High-Purity Substance Chemistry will present a zero-waste process for manufacturing optical materials whose quality is, so far, unmatched in Europe. They are especially important for making powerful gas lasers, aerospace reconnaissance equipment and medical diagnostic devices.

The Mechanical Engineering Institute from the town of Dzerzhinsk will also present some of its innovative solutions, including a unique explosion welding process and a wear-resistance coating process. Dramatically reducing the consumption of expensive materials and delivering enhanced wear resistance, these are especially useful for the chemicals industry and mechanical engineering.The region's government and the Russia-India Chamber of Commerce are ready to indentify a partner for signing a memorandum of understanding in order to promote partnership between Nizhny Novgorod's and India's trading and manufacturing companies and business communities with a special focus on innovative production.

As it was said by Valeriy Shantsev, the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, innovation is Russia's strategic resource. There can be already seen a number of industries with most exciting opportunities for innovation development, such as the automotive industry, nuclear engineering, aircraft construction, shipbuilding, electronics, instrumentation manufacturing and information technologies. The regional Government's objective for the coming years is to substantially increase the share of innovative products to 20-25 % . Tools to achieve this have already been identified. They include creating technology parks to put new technologies into action, setting up business incubators to foster innovative start-ups and developing venture capital.

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Nizhny Novgorod regional government

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