16 December 1999
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Russian Economics Minister To Be In Chally
The KamAZ board chairman and Russian economics minister, Andrei Shapovalyants, will attend the board's meeting in Chally, the "Vechernyaya Kazan" daily reported on 15 December. Tatarstan's deputy prime minister and economics and industry minister, Sergei Kogogin, was quoted as saying that the truck concern's managers would discuss the KamAZ strategic plan for 2000. Kogogin said that Shapovalyants would like to be see that the criticism made at the board's last meeting in Moscow considered in the formulation of next year's plan.
Tatarstan Sends Humanitarian Aid To Chechen Refugees
Humanitarian aid for Chechen refugees was delivered from Tatarstan to Mozdok, in Ingushetia, on 16 December, Tatar-inform reported. Two trucks loaded with 400,000 rubles worth of medicine, clothes, and food joined a convoy of trucks from other republics and oblasts in the Volga region in the town of Saratov.
Unemployment Decreases
Unemployment in Tatarstan decreased by one-third compared to the beginning of the year and totalled about 30,000 people, Tatar-inform reported on 15 December. Currently the unemployment level in Tatarstan is 1.66 percent of the workforce. An official from the State Committee on Labor and Employment, Klara Tazetdinova, was cited as saying that the trend of declining unemployment started in April, and it may be linked with the growth in production. She said the number of jobs available in companies in December was 13,000, some 2.6 times more than during the same period in 1998.
New Year Illumination To Be Cut Twice In Kazan
Tatarstan's Cabinet of Ministers decided to reduced by nearly threefold the amount of energy used for street lights in the streets of Kazan during New Years celebrations, the daily "Vechernyaya Kazan" reported on 15 December. The measure is due to the decrease in gas deliveries to Tatarstan which has caused fuel shortages in the republic. Only some 40 percent of consumed energy is reportedly being paid for by Kazan residents. Tatarstan's power company Energosbyt intends to make a list of the people who will have their electricity cut off unless they pay their debts to the company.
Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova