Governor Igor Kobzev and Ilim Group’s CEO Alexei Lomko Discuss Cooperation
News General news
Igor Kobzev, Governor of the Irkutsk Oblast, and Alexei Lomko, Chief Executive Officer of JSC Ilim Group, had a business meeting in the region’s Government office. The parties negotiated cooperation under major investment projects in the Angara Region and Ilim Group’s involvement in the development of social initiatives.
“The Company informed us about two new investment projects related to the upgrade of its production facilities in the region.We will elaborate on this further at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to be held in early June. Ilim Group is a reliable partner in the region and the Government is willing to take part in production site revamp and development,” Igor Kobzev emphasized.
The Governor mentioned the environmental aspect as a priority: it is important to consider replacing plastic with paperboard packaging, including food packaging. Talent training and development for the pulp and paperboard industry was among other important topics for discussion. The parties considered including the Ust-Ilimsk Forestry Technologies and Services College in the Professionalization federal program.
— “The Irkutsk Oblast is a key region for Ilim Group. We have always developed good partnership and efficient cooperation. We implemented the largest project the pulp and paper industry saw in the last 40 years by building our KLB Mill in Ust-Ilimsk. The Mill strengthened Ilim’s leadership in China by opening additional opportunities for selling Siberian products in promising export markets. Ilim Group put forward the initiative of developing an engineering talent development center in Irkutsk. Our Bratsk Mill implements projects that will substitute a number of imported products with Ilim’s high-quality solutions”, Alexei Lomko said.
The parties also discussed the upgrade of the Ust-Ilimsk airport carried out with Ilim’s active involvement. More than RUB 380 million was allocated under the cooperation agreement between 2019 and 2023 and the airport revamp activities totally worth RUB 19.8 million are planned for 2024. In late 2023, the Ust-Ilimsk airfield received a certificate of conformance and the airfield operator is currently undergoing mandatory certification to be able to accept Class 3 aircraft such as An-24, An-26, and ATR-42.
We would like to reiterate that Ilim Group has launched its KLB Mill in Ust-Ilimsk this year. It is an innovation project with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons. The Mill uses technologies based on zero waste and lower environmental footprint. Furthermore, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development and Industry of the Irkutsk Oblast and JSC Ilim Group signed an Investment Promotion and Protection Treaty (IPPT), which is a relatively new tool aimed at supporting business and guaranteeing the investor stable business conditions for 20 years.
