NEWS

Applications started to be accepted for the 8th Republic’s Annual Open Festival of Working Youth Creativity “Our Time - Beznen Zaman”, which is held with support from Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov and under the auspices of the Russian Federation Commission for UNESCO.

The qualifying stages of the festival will be held from October to November 2020 to include 4 zonal qualifying rounds in the cities of Nizhnekamsk, Almetyevsk, Zelenodolsk, and Kazan, and the super finals and gala concert in Kazan.

The general age requirements for the festival participants remained the same - these are working young people aged 18 to 35, for whom the participation in the contest programme is not a professional activity. The festival aims to popularise blue-collar and white-collar jobs and to uncover the creative potential of young professionals. It is a socially significant governmental project that has no commercial purposes. Participation in the festival is free, registration fee is not charged. Institutions and enterprises of Tatarstan send a team or individual performers to participate in the festival to show their talents in such categories as “Musical Area”, “Dance Area”, and “Minute of Fame”.

Winners and laureates of the festival are awarded with cups, diplomas, souvenirs, and cash prizes. The holder of the Festival Grand Prix is awarded with a diploma, the Tatarstan President’s Challenge Cup, and a cash prize.

Kuibyshev Railways is searching for innovative solutions and technologies. The main goal of the search is their testing and possible further implementation for the entire railway network of the Russian Federation. The search is performed for the following queries: Artificial Intelligence; Innovative product with enhanced properties of reliability, wear resistance; Technical diagnostics; Energy efficiency; Use of alternative energy sources.

Requests for innovations of the Kuibyshev Railways passed the prioritisation procedure at the Russian Railways and are recognised as relevant for the search for appropriate innovative solutions.

In the process of considering applications, preference will be given to innovative solutions at the final stage of development, that would be capable to present a turnkey solution and/or prototype for trial operation in the interests of the Russian Railways.

Each application should contain presentations, as well as documents confirming the applicants’ rights to the results of intellectual activity contained in innovative solutions, if any.

Additional information, as well as an application form, can be found on the official website of the Kuibyshev Railways at the link (in Russian).

On July 17, 2020, the All-Russian online conference "Major Changes in 2020: Results of the First Year’s Half and Plans for the Future” will be held with the participation of experts from the Federal Service for Employment and Labour Relations of Russia and leading professionals in the sphere of labour protection.

The Conference will consider the main changes in labour protection, new regulations for checking employers, an effective system for assessing occupational risks, conducting medical examinations in 2020, and tools that will help to introduce a safety culture.

Attendance is free.

We invite managers, experts of labour protection services and other concerned agencies to participate in the said online conference. After the event, participants will receive a document of participation (certificate).

For more information, as well as to register for the event, please visit https://seminar.vip.1otruda.ru.

In order to implement priority measures to support business entities of Tatarstan, Russian Railways provides 50% discounts on the railway tariff for goods of the second and third tariff classes, including vehicles and spare parts, paper, oilcake, grain and grinding products, pasta, vegetables, fruits and berries, fish, sugar, salt, meat, butter and vegetable oil, confectionery, juices and other food products, compound feeds, wooden products and products from ferrous metals, machinery and equipment, metal structures, groupage cargoes, manufactured goods for consumers, including soap, furniture, shoes, toys, dishes, building decoration materials and tools, cotton and a wide range of chemical products, for transportation distances up to 720 km inclusive.

A 25% discount is also set for goods of the first tariff class, including non-ferrous metal raw materials and sulphur raw materials, building bricks, mineral construction products, for a transportation distance of up to 300 km inclusive.

The said discounted tariffs will be valid until December 31, 2020.

One of the effective methods to combat occupational injuries is to regularly inform workers through the media. For the past 19 years, the specialised newspaper entitled “Labour Protection and Enterprise Safety” has been a good assistant for professionals in labour protection services and managers of all levels on issues of labour legislation and labour protection.

The subjects of the newspaper are labour protection, labour productivity, road, industrial, energy, environmental, and fire safety, economic, information, personal, and plant security, anti-terror, and civil defence. The materials are aimed at ensuring that enterprises operate without accidents and injuries. The publication contains comments on new regulatory documents and government decisions, materials of state labour inspectors on the causes of industrial accidents, articles analysing the circumstances of industrial injuries and cases of occupational diseases.

It is published 2 times a month.

Subscription can be made at any branch of the Russian Post or online at https: podpiska.pochta.ru

Today, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan Albert Karimov had a video conference meeting with Trade Representative of Russia in Egypt Nikolay Aslanov. The aim of the event was to discuss bilateral cooperation development prospects between Tatarstan and Egypt.

“Egypt is a promising partner for Tatarstan. To date, the potential of bilateral cooperation has not been fully disclosed. An indicator of this potential is the considerable interest expressed by the enterprises of Tatarstan in developing business relations with partners from Egypt”, said Albert Karimov during his welcoming speech. “We are ready to develop cooperation with our Egyptian counterparts in a wide range of activity areas”, he also noted in his speech.

Despite the difficulties arising from the current situation in the world, major enterprises of Tatarstan, such as KAMAZ, Tatneft, Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation, Kazan Opticо-Mechanical Plant, POZIS, KER-Holding and others continue their cooperation with Egyptian partners.

For reference: at the end of 2019, the foreign trade turnover between Tatarstan and Egypt amounted to US$ 24.3 million, including export operations of US$ 20.8 million, and import operations of US$ 3.5 million.

Starting July 1, Russia will introduce mandatory digital marking of medicines, footwear, and tobacco products. From this date on, the requirements for mandatory marking of pharmaceutical products for medical use by manufacturers and importers, as well as the ban on the circulation of unmarked footwear and tobacco products (cigarettes) come into force.

Information on the movements of marked medicines, footwear, and tobacco products at each link at all stages of product distribution (on each transaction) should be transmitted to the state information marking system.

The “Chestny Znak” (Honest Sign) application developed by the operator of the state information marking system is available for smartphones on iOS and Android. To date, more than 230,000 participants are registered in the marking system. The Honest Sign application was downloaded by about 800,000 users, and about 7 million products were checked. In the event that illegal products are detected, this fact can be reported to the system directly from the application; information will be received by supervisory authorities.

About 13 billion codes were issued for tobacco products, 2 billion for shoes, 1.4 billion for medicines, 1.1 million for dairy products, 1.2 million for tyres, and 1.1 million for light industry goods.

The next category of goods for which marking is mandatory, will be photo products, perfumes, and eau de toilette (from October 1, 2020).

Starting July 1, 2020, the guaranteeing supplier and grid organisations of Tatarstan will begin to create smart electricity metering systems, including the installation of smart meters for republic’s consumers, in accordance with Federal Law No.522-FZ of 27.12.2018 “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in Connection with Development of Electric Energy (Capacity) Metering Systems in the Russian Federation”.

Installation of smart metering devices in multi-apartment residential buildings is entrusted to the guaranteeing supplier, Tatenergosbyt, and in the private sector and for legal entities, to the Tatarstan Grid Company.

Smart metering of electricity provides consumers with a number of advantages: remote transmission and access to meter data; quality control of electric energy; the accuracy of payments for electricity; remote reprogramming, switching to other tariffs; elimination of unaccounted electricity consumption and unauthorised interference in the operation of meters; reduction of electric energy losses and electricity volumes for general household needs.

More information about replacing individual electricity meters can be found at the official website of Tatenergosbyt in the “Population / Replacement of Metering Devices” section.

According to the results of price monitoring in large federal and regional retail chains in the republic from June 15 to 22, an increase in prices for a number of socially important foods was recorded: apples (up 5.7%); potatoes (up 4.2%); carrots (up 2%); pork, except for boneless meat (up 1%), and buckwheat (up 1%).

The main reason for the increase in prices for fruits and vegetables is the seasonal factor, which is observed in the republic from year to year.

At present, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Tatarstan continues to work jointly with the Tatarstan’s Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Ministry of Agriculture and Foods of Tatarstan, and the Prosecutor’s Office of Tatarstan to identify the reasons for the price increases for pork and buckwheat.

The last week dynamics revealed a decrease in prices for fresh white cabbage (down 6.8%), onions (down 3%), and chicken eggs (down 1.7%).

In addition, more than 6800,000 antiseptics, 1.6 million pairs of gloves, and 7.8 million facemasks were available in the republic’s retail and pharmacy chains as of June 25, 2020. Protective equipment can be purchased in retail chains of Magnit, Pyaterochka, Lenta, Metro, Verny, Auchan, Perekrestok, Selgros, Bekhetle, Edelweiss, Avgustina, Agat, FAITRO, Chelny Bread, Duslyk, Gurman-Produkt, Svetofor and in pharmacy chains of Tattekhmedpharm, Planeta Zdorovya, Riviera, Saulyk, Sakura, Pharmlend, Eva Plus, Magnat, Universal, and Aloe-Pharm.

Kazan Helicopters of the Russian Helicopters Holding provided financial support to the Republic’s Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan. All funds were sent to help physicians treating patients with COVID-19.

The funds were transferred to the Ak Bars Creation Charity Foundation as part of the “Help Is Nearby” campaign. The Republic’s Clinical Hospital was chosen for targeted assistance, and today, a temporary infectious hospital with 200 beds for patients with coronavirus infection has been deployed in the Trauma Centre building. The allocated amount was spent on a monthly supply of medicines for the treatment of patients with COVID-19, as well as on 7,000 litres of bottled water and personal protective equipment.

On behalf of the management of the Republic’s Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan and the Ak Bars Creation Charity Foundation, letters of thanks were sent to Director General of the Russian Helicopters Holding Andrey Boginsky and Managing Director of Kazan Helicopters Yuri Pustovgarov.

For Kazan Helicopters, this is not the first charity event during the coronavirus pandemic. In May 2020, the factory workers helped the lonely non-working pensioners of the company. Targeted aid was rendered to over 100 persons. Within a very short time, activists of the Kazan Helicopters Youth Union organised a charity fundraising event, a part in which was taken by all working units of the company. With the money raised, food gift baskets were purchased.