Four enterprises of Leningrad region and the leading forest technical higher education institution in Russia entered the Association “Cluster of wood processing industry”. Creation of the regional Cluster was officially announced in February at the Russian Investment Forum.
Agreements on joining the Association were signed by representatives of Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University named after S.M.Kirov, Smurfit Kappa Saint Petersburg, FIRO-O, Tarpan-V, Leader during a round table “Opportunities and prospects for development of the cluster of wood processing industry in Leningrad region” organized by Industry Development Centre of Leningrad Region.
“Creation of the timber industry cluster in the region is the first, intermediate, but very important result of our joint work. I am sure that the Cluster will continue to receive new enterprises and new projects in future,” said Director General of Industry Development Centre of Leningrad Region Andrey Pivinsky.
Advantages of cluster cooperation include involvement of small business in technological processes of large companies, filling available investment niches, personnel training, reduction of expenses and provision of government support. Enterprises which implement joint projects are guaranteed to receive subsidies amounting to up to 50% of expenditures incurred at all stages, including provision of finance to engineering development, leasing payments, personnel training, etc.
“Lack of financing aimed at creation of new products, import dependency due to the lack of domestic equivalents, improvement of the quality of personnel and labour productivity – these are the main problems which we are going to solve within the Cluster,” commented Director of the Association “Cluster of wood processing industry”, Director General of Leader Vladimir Pozdyakov.
Timber industry complex occupies the third place in the region in terms of the volume of production. The volume of investments in development of timber industry complex of Leningrad region has increased 1.5 times in 2018 and came to 4.6 billion rubles.
