4 April 2000
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Tatar President Visits Emirates
Tatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiev, left Kazan for the United Arab Emirates on 2 April at the invitation of Shah Mansur, the presidential press center reported. Meetings with the county's leaders and negotiations on developing cooperation between the two sides are to be held during the visit.
YelAZ Creates Joint Venture
A project to create a joint venture for making buses in the off-shore zone of Alabuga is being planned by the YelAZ car plant, Tatar Radio reported on 3 April. Two Swedish companies are expected to become partners of YelAZ. The new bus model will use the chassis of the KamAZ truck and a Volvo engine. The project is scheduled to be concluded in the first half of the year. A joint venture formed in Alabuga three years ago, YelAZ-GM, produces Chevrolet Blazer jeeps.
Pakistan To Assemble Tatar Cars?
An official from Tatarstan's Trade and Economic Cooperation Ministry said the assembly of the Tatarstani-produced small car Oka in Pakistan is the most realistic Russian-Pakistani joint project currently being discussed, Tatar Radio reported on 3 April. Pakistan's leaders reportedly are going to reopen relations with Russia that have been frozen since Pakistan's military coup last year. Russia's Trade Ministry is for the creation of joint ventures and the development of direct cooperation with Pakistan despite the political instability there. Russian Trade Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Pakistan's ambassador to Russia, Alam Mansur, agreed to create an intergovernmental committee on trade, economic, scientific, and technical cooperation. In 1999, agreements were signed by Tatarstan with Pakistan's former leaders to deliver vehicles from the KamAZ truck concern and the Kazan helicopter plant.
Parents Of Killed Soldiers Given Meager Financial Aid
The Chally-based families of three soldiers who died in Chechnya were granted financial aid at the Chally recruiting office on 3 April, Tatar Radio and Television reported. A reported 4,000 rubles (about $140) were given to each family by the Tatgazinvest company. According to reports by the public committee of parents whose children died while in the military, which was recently established in Chally, 20 citizens of the city have died fighting in Chechnya in the two wars there in the last 10 years. Sixteen during the first operation, and four in the current one.
Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova