St. Petersburg enterprises using robots will receive state support

St. Petersburg has launched a new program of preferential financing that will promote robotization of city enterprises. It is implemented by the St. Petersburg Industry Development Fund.

As explained by TV channel "78" with reference to the Smolny's press service, companies introducing modern technologies in production will be granted loans from 5 to 500 million rubles for a period of 5 years at 3% per annum. At the same time, the companies must invest at least 15% of their own funds in the project.

The loans can be used to purchase robotic equipment and software, pay for delivery, installation and adjustment of the equipment. In addition, these funds can be used to pay customs duties if the equipment is imported from abroad.

The city authorities consider the development of robotization of production as one of the priorities. So, this year they should launch another measure of state support - subsidies for the introduction of automated and semi-automated systems with numerical control. For one enterprise the amount of subsidy will be up to 10 million rubles, the city authorities will cover up to 80% of the cost of equipment and 50% of the cost of Russian-made systems.

The goal is to help local factories increase labor productivity, reduce costs and improve competitiveness indicators.

At the end of January, experts predicted the situation on the labor market in industry. In the coming years, the growth of wages in industry will overtake the growth of labor remuneration in other industries, suggested Sergey Kolesnikov, co-owner and managing partner of Technonikol. According to him, this will be influenced by a very high demand for specialists, difficulties in settlements with imports, and stimulating measures of the Russian government.