Sergei Oposhnyansky, Yevgeny Khokhlov

Novosibirsk is considered the informal capital of Siberia not only by virtue of the historical tradition but also because it is precisely there that the headquarters of the Russian Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Siberian Federal District is located. What is more, this region is distinctly different from the rest of the enormous Siberian area. The compact, well-developed territory, wide network of motor roads, comparatively short distances between cities, moderate weather conditions remind more of Central Russia. Besides, there are no natural resources there, which determine the economic potential of most of the Siberian regions. Instead, Novosibirsk’s processing industries as well as science intensive sector are by far more developed there than anywhere else in the District. This explains all those peculiarities of the economic policy conducted by the administration of the Novosibirsk region that its Governor Victor Tolokonsky was discussing with Eurasian Metals.

T

he Russian economy is showing the higher rates of growth than predicted: as reported by the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, in the first six months the country’s output of industrial products increased 6.8 %. But even against the background like this the Novosibirsk region looks more advanced. In the words of Victor Tolokonsky, its volume of industrial production as well as Gross Regional Product (GRP) rose 8 %. He has no doubt that the same rates of growth will hold out till the year’s end. All in all, since 2000, when, in fact, the economic upsurge started, GRP will increase between 37 % and 38 % during this period. And this is 10 % higher than Russia’s average, stressed the Governor.
Victor Tolokonsky drew attention to the new trend in the region’s economy: for the first time the growth of industrial production is, even if slightly, but still surpassing rates of development of services sector, the infrastructure industries and agriculture. He explained this fact the following way:

Novosibirsk. The bridge over the Ob river

"Although there are many enterprises in the Novosibirsk region, its industrial potential, in my view, is obviously insufficient. It happened so that the establishment of the largest scientific center in the 1950s radically changed priorities: all construction of new industrial enterprises in the region was completely stopped. Only small individual enterprises with a limited number of employees and insignificant production volumes were set up. But nowadays, when the market economy laws are being in effect and regions are relying on their own financial base, by contrast with other regions we are facing a lot of hardship".
The largest scientific center that Governor Tolokonsky mentioned is the famed Akademgorodok (Science City), where the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as departments of the Academies of Medical and Agricultural Sciences are located. Over 200 scientific research organizations and 30 colleges are located in and around Novosibirsk itself. However, unlike the U.S. Silicon Valley, Akademgorodok is getting extremely miserable funds from the federal budget. And today it is a source of additional troubles for the administration of the Novosibirsk region rather than the object of pride.
There is no doubt that from this point of view industrial centers of the Urals and Siberia are in better position because they have still reliably operating economies, although they are outdated. "When I meet my colleagues from the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk or Kemerovo regions, I enviously note: in their regions just one integrated metallurgical mill with 20,000 to 25,000 workers pays out to the budget as mush taxes as the whole industry of the Novosibirsk region does, although it has over 250 enterprises", confided Victor Tolokonsky. That is why he considered promoting the buildup of the industrial potential one of the most important task facing his administration.
The defense industrial complex accounts for a large sector of the Novosibirsk industry. Since at present state defense orders are reduced to a minimum, the region’s administration proposed its own way of developing production at these enterprises. The Governor did not go into details of conversion programs saying only that "this is a long, painful process" and that "the work is still far from being over". It turned out that the policy of encouraging business to establish new production facilities was more effective since it took into consideration conditions and needs of the region, which, in the words of Victor Tolokonsky, "by Siberian standards has a sufficiently high concentration of population, large traffic interchanges". In principle, Novosibirsk "is capable of supplying goods to all eastern territories of Russia". Arguments like these happened to be convincing enough to producers of goods and the dynamics of the industrial growth proved the rightfulness of these words.
In this connection it was interesting to find out the Governor’s opinion about the ambitious economic task put forward by the President of the Russian Federation: in the forthcoming decade to double the country’s GDP. Pointing that, although reaching this goal did not look that simple, in practice it was quite achievable. Victor Tolokonsky shared his perception of the problem:
"Reaching high rates of growth is not an end in itself. It is more important to make create a more effective economy. We are counting on securing the doubling of GRP, mainly, with the help of new production facilities. We want to make sure that modern production facilities and enterprises focused on the future of the technical progress will be developing by the advanced rates". The region’s administration is discussing with members of Russia’s Cabinet of Ministers a possibility of establishing a free economic zone in Novosibirsk that could help implement unique investment projects based on the available scientific and engineering potential.
"By its nature the economy of the Novosibirsk region is innovative", said Victor Tolokonsky. "As far as we are concerned, the choice of the strategic direction that I am talking about is more pressing than for other Russian regions. But I think that it is very important for Russia as whole to seek doubling GDP through deep qualitative changes and structural improvements, not just within the existing sectors".

P  R  O  F  I  L  E
Victor Tolokonsky Governor of the Novosibirsk region, 50 years old. Graduated from the Novosibirsk Institute of National Economy and a post-graduate course at the Novosibirsk State University. From 1978 to 1981 was teaching in colleges. Later became a public employee. In December 1993 was elected Mayor of the city of Novosibirsk. In January 2000 was elected Governor of the Novosibirsk region. Sticks to certain rules in politics. Negative toward self-advertising public actions, hates to seek after electors’ votes and give away to momentary interests. Believes that it is much more important to understand long-term needs of citizens and take actions with future consequences taken into account. Calls himself a "professional manager" since has been working in state power bodies over 20 years. Capable of making more accurate and effective solutions than professional specialists, although always listens to others’ opinions with attention. Likes to spend his vacation time in Sochi, on the Black Sea coast. Likes sports, plays basketball very well and heads the team of basketball veterans, which is quite successfully competing with others. Married, has two children.

In the Governor’s opinion, Novosibirsk is able to be in the vanguard of the economic upsurge of all of Siberia. "No other Siberian region has such an advanced hi-tech industry, such a concentration of scientific organizations, such a complex market infrastructure and – what is very important – such traditions of using this potential", insisted Victor Tolokonsky. In his words, the economic structure of the Novosibirsk region "resembles the one of developed countries in the West" since "it is oriented on making the end product". "Production and the primary processing of raw materials account for only 2 % of the total production volume", the Governor pointed out. "The machine-building industry is the leading one. We are producing aircrafts, turbogenerators, electric motors, radio equipment, optical instruments, medical equipment".

Novosibirsk. In the city’s streets

In the Governor’s opinion, the high quality of products and scientific developments in the Novosibirsk region are proved by their presence in world market. The region’s industry is exporting goods of over 1,500 names with the share of hi-tech products constantly increasing. It is also worth noting the direct participation of its science in the international business cooperation. In particular, Victor Tolokonsky referred to the experience of interaction of the Institute of Catalysis with the U. K. universities and companies in working out technology to purify gases from foreign substances. The Institute of Nuclear Physics is exporting atom-smashers. Foreign markets know quite well optical laser systems produced by the Institute of Automation and Electrometry. International scientific centers established on the basis of Akademgorodok are contributing to the development of cooperation. Among them are Centers of Synchrotron Radiation, of Aerophysics Research, of Research and Testing of Catalysts.
Describing prospects of cooperative activity by industrial enterprises and scientific institutions, Victor Tolokonsky expressed the opinion that "opportunities to establish a modern production of instruments and structures of power electronics do exist". The scientific and production base that is available in the region "permits to form the complete technological chain, arrange a special silicon production and manufacture power packs as an end product". In this respect institutes of semi-conductor physics, of thermal physics and of inorganic chemistry as well as a number of Novosibirsk plants of the appropriate specialization are considered to be the basic ones. The approximate volume of sales with intermediate products taken into account is estimated at $20 to $40 million dollars a year.
It is obvious that such projects require large investments. According to Victor Tolokonsky, the investment climate in the region is quite favorable: "the political situation is stable, the economy is growing, the trade as well as service, information and financial networks are well developed, there are sufficiently interesting projects". But, in the opinion of Novosibirsk’s Governor, science and production connected with it precisely are those areas that are most attractive to investors.