On Sundays Kazan residents flock to local bazaars to buy and sell locally made goods – a centuries-old way of doing business not just in Tatarstan but across the globe. The region has always been an important trade route and a hub for business.

The real money is made near the city of Nizhnekamsk, with 200 million barrels of crude oil pumped there annually. It then goes to some of Russia's largest petrochemical plants to be processed.

The black stuff that comes out of Tatarstan's soil has a high sulphur content – making it tougher to refine than others elsewhere in the world.

In the past, this oil has been sold on for others to profit from. But now there's a new entrepreneurial spirit in the air and homegrown companies are now doing it for themselves.

Aleksandr Baynin from Taif-NK, a local oil company that now employs 2,700, says they plan to open another extraction site which will cost around $US 1 billion.

After it is refined, oil can be used for pretty much anything.

Plastics manufacturing is a real money spinner. Nizhnekamsk plant produces among other things, polypropylene, which is used to make furniture, and also medical equipment, car livery, bags – in fact, you name it and it's probably made of it. 25 tonnes of the stuff are bagged up each hour and dispatched across Russia, and the world.

Forty years ago there were only fields around Nizhnekamsk. Now a tangle of pipes and silos are constantly at work, and it's going to get bigger, with plans to turn it into the world's fifth largest petrochemical site.

A special economic zone, Alabuga, has been set up in the area, which takes part in a new economic experiment.

“What we promote here is not an abstract idea, not even a business plan but a real industrial site with good infrastructure,” says Timur Shagivaleyev, site director of Alabuga Special Economic Zone.

It's early days but companies are jumping on board – from insulation producers to car makers.

“The support we get in Tatarstan is enormous. So this is the main reason we're here,” says Adil Shirinov, CEO of car manufacturer Severstalauto.

To watch other reports from Tatarstan please visit the Russia Close-Up page.