The shareholders of the management company of the SEZ "Alabuga" are the Russian Federation through the JSC "Special Economic Zones" with 100% state participation (Ministry of Land and Property of the Republic of Tatarstan).

In the vicinity of Naberezhnye Chelny, the auto road and railways communications were established; KamAZ was showing new industrial capacities; the Plant of Transport Electrical Equipment and the Cardboard and Paper combine enterprise and the Nizhnekamsk hydroelectric station were launched.

The project, commissioned by the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machinery of the USSR, was designed by "Giprotractorselkhozmash" from Kharkiv; its main contractor was the production association "Kamgesenergostroy".

The first cubic meter of concrete was laid in the foundation of the future plant on 12 October 1984, and the next year the construction of apartment houses, factory buildings, boiler station, treatment facilities and the road from the highway Kazan - Naberezhnye Chelny highway to the plant site were launched.

The republican authorities also revived the idea of car production and in late 1995 reached crucial agreements with the concern of General Motors.

In early 1996, a joint venture "YelAZ-General Motors" was established with $250 million of authorised capital, 25% of which belonged to US investors, the rest — in equal shares to Tatarstan and Russia.

Despite the fact that in 2001 the American company left the joint venture "ElAZ — General Motors", the FEZ continued its work.

By 2003, 13 companies were located in the FEZ, including the "Skantat" joint venture with Volvo, which produces buses on the KamAZ chassis; the Minski Traktarny Zavod tractor production; the meat-processing plant "Modul", the car chemicals production "D Plast-Eftek; the manufacturer of special machinery on the cargo chassis "AutoMaster"; a factory of office furniture and trade equipment "ElTons"; the manufacturer of building components "DSK KMK" and the joint venture for the heaters production "Delonghi — ZASS «Alabuga»".

[6][7] The law "On Free Economic Zone «Alabuga»" contained some fundamental differences from federal legislation related to the industrial and production specificity of the site and the desire of the Tatarstan authorities to avoid the use of FEZ for tax evasion.

The republican prosecutor's office considered that these differences contained violations of the Civil Code that restrict citizens' rights to engage in entrepreneurial activities, and protested the law during the discussion of the amendments in September 2001.

Representatives of the Directorate of investment programs were invited to the working group for drafting the bill, and after the adoption of the law "On special economic zones" in July–August 2005, Herman Gref visited Yelabuga.

784 "On the establishment of a special economic zone of industrial type on the territory of the Yelabuga district of the Republic of Tatarstan".

The tripartite agreement, signed on 18 January 2006 between the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan and the administration of Yelabuga municipal district, obliged the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan to jointly finance the engineering, transport and social infrastructure of the SEZ.

JSC "Special Economic Zones", completely owned by the Russian Federation and the Ministry land and property relations of the Republic of Tatarstan, became its shareholder.

[18] Transport accessibility of "Alabuga" is provided by a two-kilometre road that connects the site with the federal highway M7, a river communication with access to the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia through the ports in Naberezhnye Chelny and Nizhnekamsk, the international airport Begishevo and non-public railway to Tikhonovo station at the Kuybyshev Railway.

A cargo express is planned to be launched in 2017, which will connect the Kuibyshev and Gorky Railway, and will run along the route Sukhobozvodnoye-Tikhonovo and supply quartz sand to Alabuga for the glass production.

The on-site post with 46 employees has been located in the administrative and business centre and became part of the "one-stop-shop" system for resident companies.

The SEZ management planned to reprofile the hotel to accommodate employees of resident companies, sent to Alabuga, and in 2017 chose "Ramada" international network to be its operator.

Within the framework of the educational program, students do training in various divisions of the "Alabuga" Directorate and develop projects to address the real needs of the administration and residents of the SEZ.

[46] Alabuga Polytech has been the subject of frequent criticisms and accusations, including: forced labor, including forced night shifts; students being denied sick leave; mandatory paintball sessions; corporal punishment; a lack of proper support from the administration in cases of personal difficulties;[47] providing inadequate food and rest between required labour, paintball, and education; understaffed medical services;[46] and being forced to miss classes for mandatory work shifts.

Reports have detailed different punishments for losing teams: Running or digging trenches in the rain; expulsion (and a consequent fine); some shot at with paintball guns from three metres; others were reportedly tasked to "storm" a hill, without weapons, with the goal of reaching school faculty who were shooting at the students from the top.

[46] The school had attempted marketing in African countries to attract young "mulattos", as they called them, to their education programs and to be used in labour.

[53] According to the reports of JSC "SEZ IPT «Alabuga»" of 2014, 590 employees worked for the management company of the special economic zone.

The President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov estimates the tax revenues to fully cover 25.7 billion roubles of state investments in the infrastructure of "Alabuga" by 2019.

According to the plan, by 2023 the number of residents will reach 120, the volume of annual tax deductions — 32 billion roubles a year (476 mln U.S.

[58][60] The procedure of obtaining the status of the resident is defined by law: a company must register legal entity in Yelabuga municipal area and present a business plan with investments not less than 120 million roubles.

[63][64] In December 2016, Alabuga reached a principal agreement on cooperation with the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), one of the first and most successful free economic zones in China.

Among prospects were: attracting more than 60 resident companies from China to the Tatarstan special economic zone; making TEDA the Alabuga shareholders through selling them one part of the additional emission of JSC "SEZ IPT Alabuga" shares, planned for 2018–2019; creating a joint venture — the audit-consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers was engaged in the development of this project.

[86] Since 2012, "Alabuga" has been included in the ratings of the best free economic zones fDi Intelligence — The Financial Times business unit.