St. Petersburg – PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev took part in a panel session titled ‘A Recipe for Global Competitiveness for Russian Industry’ at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (“SPIEF”).
The debates were focused on successful cases of Russian companies in export markets and the mechanisms through which the state can support exports. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak and Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov were among the panel particiants.
Andrey Guryev, as the CEO of a Company that exports its products to more than 100 countries all around the world and as the President of Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers, noted that “one of the guarantees of successful exports for the mineral fertilizer industry is constant work on improving efficiency and reducing costs, constant modernisation and expansion of production capacities using the best available techniques.”
The PhosAgro CEO also stressed that without state support, the implementation of such large-scale investment programmes would not be possible. Over the past five years, PhosAgro has invested over RUB 150 billion into the development of fertilizer production facilities, while the figure for the industry as a whole exceeded RUB 750 billion.
Andrey Guryev recalled that currently there are a number of state support programmes, including SPIC 1.0 and regional property tax and profit tax exemptions, and also expressed special gratitude to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for including mineral fertilizers in the list of products for the implementation of state support for organisations implementing corporate programmes to improve competitiveness, and the possibility for PhosAgro to secure state support measures for major investment projects.
“It is thanks to state support, which spurred the overall growth in production of fertilizers in the industry by almost 20% to nearly 50 million tonness of fertilizers over the past five years, that we achieved one of the highest growth rates in the world. Thanks to this support, last year Russia managed to reach second place in global fertilizer production, bypassing the United States,” said the PhosAgro CEO.
Andrey Guryev added that private business hopes for further support of investment initiatives both through active use of existing incentive mechanisms, and through the development of legislation at the federal and regional levels in to expand the number of possible instruments for providing support.
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