Penza, 4 December 2015. PenzaNews. Seven companies from Penza enterprise clusters were selected for SME investment projects.

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They will receive state support in the form of reimbursement for a part of equipment upgrade costs and first equipment lease down payments. Moreover, projects involved in ethnic arts and crafts also received support.

Among the companies selected for state support are: “Okhrannaya Tekhnika” and “PKF ‘Polet’” from the instrument-making cluster “Defense”; “MedInzh-Production” and “Biokor” from the engineering and production cluster “Biomed”; “Samoe Vkusnoe” from the Confectionary Workers Union; individual businessman Alexander Fokin from the Nikolsk glassworks cluster; and shoe shop “Alfa” from the clothing and footwear industry cluster that is being formed in the region.

Support for cluster enterprises is one of the priorities for the region, said Alexei Kostin, assistant Minister of Production in the Penza region, head of the ministerial Business Development Department.

The organization of systematic support for company cluster initiatives and projects is the main objective of the Penza region Center for Cluster Development, he added.

“By helping a cluster company, we can be assured the support will have an exponential effect as it spreads over a whole set of enterprises and companies in the region that cooperate and coordinate with each other within the regional cluster,” the official pointed out.

Alexei Kostin also noted that enterprise clusters in the Penza region bring together the highly active regional companies with great potential.

“At the moment, the Penza region works to update the member list of the Supreme Economic Council and consultation departments on business development under the regional executive bodies. To facilitate the work of these structures, develop concrete solutions in industrial policy and business development in the Penza region, we will be actively involving those cluster members ready and willing to formulate the current needs and interests in their fields,” the assistant minister stressed.