Altai Grand Tractor Plant has been trying for nine months to get their machinery recognized as domestic by the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI).

This has resulted in the fact that not a single machine has been produced from the company's workshops for two months, and the number of personnel had to be reduced from 120 to 20 people, the regional edition of Vesti Altai reports.

In order to be able to supply machines to customers, the plant must be included in the register of Russian manufacturers. It can be done only after the relevant act of expert examination by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The paper was told by the company that the tractor plant has submitted all the documentation - both design and that which is a state secret - to the Altai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Each part, according to the company's management, has been verified by a certificate confirming that it was made in Russia. In January, according to the media, the Chamber rescinded the certificate of expertise it had issued in December.

The local Chamber of Commerce and Industry responded to the paper's inquiry that there are "statutory requirements that must be met by companies who wish to receive state preferences as manufacturers of Russian products". These requirements, according to the Chamber, "do not hinder the production of industrial products in general.

Almost all the machinery (90%) of the Altai plant was sold through government contracts. Vladimir Nazarov, the director of the plant, said that Cuba and North Africa were also customers of this equipment.

In order to draw attention to the problem, the plant's management decided to hold its equipment around Barnaul and paste it with posters saying "We are made in Russia".

According to Nazarov, the plant's machinery has been used to extinguish forest fires in the Krasnoyarsk region, build major gas pipelines, and is in demand by the Yakutia drilling crews.

All components of the tractors are Russian, the director of the plant claims. For example, the metal, according to him, is completely supplied from the Urals, and engines are made in Yaroslavl.

The mill already has an order for Magadan, but it is not possible to fulfill this order due to the current situation, said Nazarov.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Ksenia Gustova