"Foundation of the Future Economy": Industrial sovereignty was discussed at the RUSSIA EXPO

The plenary session Industrial Sovereignty - the Foundation of the Future Economy was held at the International RUSSIA EXPO. Leading representatives of the industry discussed its state, development prospects and spoke about their contribution to the success of Russian mechanical engineering. The event was held within the framework of the Mechanical Engineering Day.

Vasily Osmakov, First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, opening the meeting, noted that mechanical engineering is one of the foundations of the country's technological sovereignty.

"Mechanical engineering is a complexly structured sphere with 200 sub-branches and hundreds of thousands of jobs. About 18 thousand sanctions were imposed against our country, most of which were aimed at mechanical engineering. But the imposed restrictions have become a window of opportunity. The industry is ahead of all other sectors in terms of investment in fixed capital. The growth of industrial production from 2018 amounts to 20%, and we expect 7.5% on the results of the past year. Production is a new modern industry - 85% of capacity in the country's manufacturing industry was built after 2000," emphasized Vasily Osmakov.

A modern production base is a prerequisite for achieving technological sovereignty, which, according to Vasily Osmakov, is the main priority, especially in the sectors of aircraft, ship and machine tool construction.

"High results were achieved due to three important components: internal efficiency of our Government, in particular, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, interdepartmental cooperation, as well as the convergence of science and education with production," said Vladimir Gutenev, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the VIII convocation, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade, First Vice President of the SoyuzMash Russian Engineering Union.

As an example, he cited the work of 15 world-class Scientific and Educational Centers and Advanced Engineering Schools, the number of which was increased from 30 to 50 this year.

"We have already moved from import substitution to technological sovereignty. Our next step is technological leadership. We are very lucky with the country and with the president. Thanks to his decisions we revived the industry after the 2000s and today we are successfully resisting an unprecedented number of sanctions," summarized Vladimir Gutenev.

The importance of shipbuilding was emphasized by Vasily Boytsov, Deputy Director General for Innovation and Technical Development of USC JSC.

"Achievement of Russia's technological sovereignty is largely contributed by the shipbuilding industry. For example, the Northern Sea Route is the most important transportation artery today, and the ships built by us ensure unimpeded and regular logistics along it. Russia is one of the few countries that have all the competencies in shipbuilding, we build the entire range of marine equipment: from high-speed multifunctional boats to nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers," said Vasily Boytsov.

 Sergey Serebryakov, Director General of St. Petersburg Tractor Plant JSC, continued the topic.

"Mechanical engineering is a huge number of suppliers. That is, one plant producing machinery draws a lot of enterprises after it. And the enterprises, in turn, require the development of new types of materials, machine-tool construction, shipbuilding, etc. In the coming years, we will definitely have to develop. And here I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, because over the last 10 years a Herculean work has been done, which allowed us to reach a completely new level," Sergey Serebryakov pointed out.

Maxim Sokolov, President of AVTOVAZ JSC, told how the company achieved high results.

"First of all, the industry immediately managed to focus on localization of products. Additional drivers of development and achievement of technological sovereignty were state support, protection of the domestic market, as well as improvement of legislation on taxi and government procurement. Thanks to this, LADA became the best-selling car brand in Russia, and production volumes in 2023 increased by 70%," said Maxim Sokolov.

Alexei Demidov, UAC Deputy General Director for Economics and Finance, spoke about the path to technological sovereignty.

"Now we have a new stage, a new challenge - import substitution. The main task is to bring fully Russian airliners to the air transportation market. This is a difficult task: few countries in the world have such competencies in aircraft construction," said Alexei Demidov.

According to him, despite the fact that in 2022 many foreign companies left Russia "without even finishing their coffee", the corporation continues the implementation of advanced projects, such as MС-21 with a unique composite wing, which has no analogues for narrow-body airliners all over the world.

The International RUSSIA EXPO is the most important achievements of the country gathered in one place. During the whole period of the Exposition, guests are welcomed by cultural events, a rich business and educational program. The expositions of 89 Russian regions, leading federal agencies, corporations and public organizations are presented to the visitors.