Governor Alexey Ostrovskiy chaired a meeting of the Investment Policy Commission

The application for assigning Smolensk Shoe Factory, OOO (Limited Liability Company) the status of a resident of the Phoenix Regional State Industrial Park was considered at the meeting of the Investment Policy Commission. The meeting was chaired by Alexey Ostrovskiy, Governor of Smolensk region.

Opening the meeting, the Head of the region focused on the fact that the creation and development of industrial parks in the region is currently one of the priority tasks of the regional economic, industrial and investment policy.

Alexey Ostrovskiy noted that the Phoenix Regional State Industrial Park investment project was developed to support the development of infrastructure of small and medium-sized enterprises and is aimed at increasing the influx of new investments, ensuring the growth of scientific and technical potential, creating more than 1,400 new jobs, and developing priority industries in the region.

The Governor emphasized that interest in the industrial park is quite great, the park is gradually being filled with residents. Currently, these are six organizations, including Alvidprof, New Energy Systems, and Valtsmatik Plant.

Smolensk Shoe Factory plans to implement the investment project "Construction of a factory for the production of shoes" on the territory of the industrial park "Phoenix".

Commenting on these plans, Alexey Ostrovskiy drew attention to the fact that the implementation of this investment project will be aimed at creating highly efficient, technological and environment-friendly production of rubber shoes, replacing imported products entering the domestic market from the EU and China, creating more than 80 jobs, contributing to all levels of the budget due to tax deductions.

The Head of the region clearly expressed his opinion about employing Smolensk residents: “Some skeptics may say that 80 jobs is a small number. But I look at it from the position that if we give work to at least one Smolensk resident who needs it, this project should be supported and implemented. Each workplace, and even more so, dozens of new jobs, is certainly a positive thing for the Smolensk region residents.”

Yekaterina Tokareva, Director General of Smolensk Shoe Factory, OOO (Limited Liability Company), spoke in more detail about the investment project: “In Smolensk we are planning the construction of a rubber shoe factory on the territory of the Phoenix Industrial Park.  A new technology for direct molding of boots made of polyurethane will be used in the production of this kind of footwear. It is worth noting that this technology has a low cost with a sufficiently high quality of the final product. Many European manufactures use it. Today in Russia there are no analogues of such production, and only eight factories in the world produce such shoes. Therefore, in Russia we want to become innovators in this.”

Director General also said that the company is ready to invest more than 172 million rubles of its own funds in the implementation of the project for the construction of the factory.

Anton Afonychev, Head of the Industry and Trade Department presented the economic and legal justification for the implementation of the investment project “Construction of a shoe factory in the Phoenix Industrial Park”. He noted that the company fully provided all the documents in accordance with the Regulation on the selection of residents of state industrial parks. “Corporation for Investment Development of Smolensk region”, OOO (Limited Liability Company) gave its approval as the managing company on the availability of the necessary land and technical conditions for the plant.

After discussing the issue, all members of the Commission unanimously supported the decision to grant Smolensk Shoe Factory, OOO (Limited Liability Company) the status of a resident of the Phoenix Industrial Park and implement an investment project to set up the production facility on its territory.

Alexey Ostrovskiy promised to inspect personally the readiness of the engineering infrastructure of the Phoenix Industrial Park in the near future.