On March 19th, 2021, the MCCI acted as the conductor of the First International Teleconference MOSCOW - AFRICA 2021, dedicated to the prospects of cooperation between Moscow’s businessmen with African countries. The event, organized by the Center "Mosprom", was held at the International Multimedia Press Center of the MIA "Russia Today".
"Today's teleconference opens a year-long series of events - a comprehensive integral study of opportunities for the development of relations between Moscow and Sub-Saharan Africa. This year's teleconference is dedicated to industrial and investment cooperation between Moscow and Africa," Ms. Tatiana Naumova, the moderator of the Main Plenary Session "Directions and possibilities of industrial and investment cooperation", told the participants of the event.
Nowadays, Africa is the leader in terms of consumption; its combined potential consumer market accounts for 1.5 billion people and is comparable to that of China.
"The African market is a very promising one and is open for cooperation," said Ms. Anna Kuzmenko, the Deputy Head of the Department of Investment and Industrial Policy of Moscow. According to her, the growth of the economies of most African countries in the last 15 years is at 4-5%, and some from 6% to 8% a year and is ahead of many Asian countries.
Promising sectors for cooperation are chemistry, transport engineering, electronics, healthcare, optics, and information technology. "In 2020, the capital increased its exports to African countries by 7% ($2.4 billion), and we will see a geometric progression in this cooperation," estimates the speaker“The MCC wholeheartedly supported this event," said the Vice President of the MCCI, Mr. Suren Vardanyan. “The pace of economic growth, the leap in the development of production capacities, which Africa demonstrates, the richness of its natural resources and the interest, shown in this continent by our international competitors, proves once again that there is a niche for us in this market.”
According to Mr. Vardanyan, our country still maintains potential in the African region in the form of graduates of Soviet and Russian universities, "who have a friendly attitude towards Russia, understand our mentality and are ready to work with us. The International Club of Employers, created through the efforts of MCCI and PFUR, works with them.
The speaker outlined the most promising areas of cooperation for Moscow in the African market :IT and communication systems, pharmaceuticals, health care, agro-processing. "Our medium-sized business today is ready to invest in the system to support the technological solutions it offers. Africa represents a fertile, high-margin and a profitable market.” concluded the Vice President of the MCCI.
"Industrialisation is the key priority for our continent," said Dr. Stergomene Lawrence Taks, the Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community, who described the free trade zones created in Africa (combines assets totalling $625 million), which give investors access to a huge market. She listed the industries with the greatest potential for development - copper mining and processing, cobalt for batteries and accumulators (secondary batteries), gold for jewellery, cotton and soy harvesting, and leather goods production.
"Agriculture employs 50% of the region's population, but there is an acute lack of investments. If we can attract them, we can grow crops for export," Ms. Taks explained. She urged companies in the Moscow region "to work with the continent on a broader scale.”
"Today's teleconference is another step in the development of high-level agreements that were reached during negotiations during the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit and Forum in Sochi," said Mr. Sergei Nosov, the Director of the Asia, Africa and Latin America Department of the Russian Federation Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to him, Russian industry can contribute much for the development of the African continent, including the areas of transport, energy and pharmaceuticals. "We are talking not just about supplying products, but about long-term projects, involving after-sales services, localization of production, training of African specialists," he said and reminded that Moscow is not only a major industrial hub, but also a center for the implementation of advanced developments and one of the world leaders in digitalization. The advanced technologies in this field may be of interest to the cities, with a population of millions, south of the Sahara, whose number has already reached 30 million people.
"We must expeditiously create a ‘reciprocal pathway’: from Russia to Africa and from Africa to Russia," expressed his opinion Mr. Igor Morozov, a Russian Senator, and member of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, and the Chairman of AFROCOM - the Coordinating Committee on Economic Cooperation with Africa. He noted that in Africa there is a high competition "on all aspects of interaction" between the EU, the U.S., China and India.
It is imperative that besides the key companies, medium and small Russian businesses should come to Africa. It is vital to work with them systematically - to establish varied interest rates for exporting of diverse cargos’ insurance, to develop priority benefits for the African markets, because the competition in this region is geopolitical in nature," - said the speaker.
"Two years ago we signed a joint memorandum with the MCCI," recalled Prince Kayode Adetokunbo, the President of the Nigerian Private Sector Alliance. - “we have a lot of opportunities for Moscow partners.” He spoke about the economic success of Nigeria and the industries that are in need development.
"Metropolitan enterprises are ready to offer African partners competitive prices, as well as additional services for training local employees, technical and service maintenance of their products by creating regional offices with warehouses of spare parts and materials" - assured Mr. Mikhail Korolyev, the Deputy Director General for innovative and technical development of the"STC" Bakor LLC".
Africa's healthcare market is expected to reach $260 billion by 2030, said Mr. Skhumbuzo Ngozwana, the President of “Kiara Health”, a pharmaceutical company. He named the problems, inherent in this market now - inaccessibility to quality drugs, lack of qualified medical personnel and the lack of early diagnosis of diseases.
One of the major problems is the lack of localization of foreign manufacturers of pharmaceutical products. All this needs to be remedied. "We want to become full-fledged players in the pharmaceutical sector," noted the speaker.
After the end of the plenary session, three round tables were held - "Recipes for export. Actual proposals of Moscow exporters", "Agro-industrial complex: strategy for success. Experience of entering the African market", "Industry 360°: opportunities, barriers, cooperation".