A webinar, dedicated to the topic of "Russia-Germany: a new stage in economic interaction" was held on September 29. Representatives of the Federal States (Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia) spoke about the conditions of their economies and advantages of the regions and opportunities for Russian companies to do business in Germany.
“For us, Germany is a major European partner; we share a long history. The presence of German companies in the projects on the territory of the Russian Federation is very conspicuous,” with these words Mr. Suren Vardanyan, the MCCI’s Vice-President, opened the meeting. He added that during the reorganization of the system of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Russia, primarily German applications and expertise were paid the closest of attention.
The Moscow Chamber has very close association with the Chambers of Commerce of Berlin, the Free State of Bavaria, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Hamburg. Mr. Vardanyan noted that political and economic "storms" all over the world and the changes in attitudes towards global economy do not negate the expediency and need for maintaining the link between Moscow and Berlin". He called on all speakers to offer very clear and concrete solutions, when analyzing particular cases.
Then, Mr. Vladislav Belov, the Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Head of the Center for German Studies, made a speech. He reminded that United Germany is the successor of the two states that were the main partners of the USSR (German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany were foremost in the foreign trade with the USSR, which amounted to about 20% of the cumulative sales volume of goods).The
“The United Germany remains our main partner. According to Russian statistics, among Western European countries, Germany is second only to Holland, but this is due to the peculiarities of accounting for hydrocarbons, oil and gas," - said Mr. Belov. He then gave a detailed account of the state and prospects for economic relations with Germany.
"Energy is the basis of our cooperation in various energy spheres. But there are many controversial points. The main thing is that there is a prospect of developing a new segment of the energy market, which is likely to displace or significantly reduce the need for other segments in the future. This is hydrogen energy", the Deputy Director said.
He also described the factors that hinder economic cooperation. These are sanctions, the pandemic, insufficient pace of economic transformations in Russia and decrease of mutual trust on the political level.
The program Director of The Russian Council for International Affairs ( RIAC ), Mr. Ivan Timofeev, spoke about the external conditions for the development of trade and economic cooperation between the business circles of Russia and Germany. The speaker mentioned with regret that "From the business point of view, the alliance between Russia and Germany is expedient, but political factors interfere in our relations. Although political situation is getting more complicated, but so far the existing conditions allow us to continue our work.” he added.
Mr. Vitaly Shmelkov, the First Chairman of the German-Russian Economic Alliance, spoke about new prospects for economic cooperation between Russia and Germany in its sixth technological stage. He considers the beginning of large international projects and development of the Russian fundamental scientific idea as an encouraging signal. "Russia is interested in a stable, predictable and non-hostile European community. Unfortunately, the level of unity in the European community is decreasing now and it is not in Russian interests", - noted the speaker.
The potential of regional bilateral economic cooperation was discussed in detail in his speech by Mr. Alexander Kotov, the Senior Researcher of the Center for Spatial Economy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Civil Engineering, Associate Professor of the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies at the National Research University of Higher School of Economics. He also addressed the prospects for recovery and increase in Russian-German trade turnover, noting that there is a strong decline in trade turnover, compared to 2012.
"We see a catastrophic drop in export and import volumes. The trade in the Eastern States (Saxony, Brandenburg, Thuringia) has fallen by 30-70 percent. Our entrepreneurs could conclude that we are waiting for us in Eastern Germany as business partners to make up for these volumes," Mr. Kotov concluded.
Mr. Andreas Brunnbauer, the official representative of Bavaria in the Russian Federation, told about the peculiarities of entrepreneurial activity in this area and the ways to find contractors there. "Many Russian companies are already successfully operating in Bavaria. They are engaged in such industries as tourism, IT, trade. and logistics”, said Mr. Brunnbauer. He stressed that the main focus for successful economic cooperation are contacts between people of Bavaria and Russia.
Practical recommendations for conducting business in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia were presented by Ms. Ekaterina Karpushenkova, the Head of the NRW. INVEST representative office.
Mr. Falk Tishendorf, the Head of the Representative Office of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the Russian Federation, spoke about the interaction of business in the non-resource economy, export and localization of production.
The Advisor to the President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ms. Marina Yevteeva, also mentioned that the topic of the Russian-German cooperation is discussed regularly in the Chamber. “The MCCI is the center, which regularly involves not only businesses, not only government agencies and local administrative organizations of the city of Moscow, but also scientific associations," - said Ms. Yevteeva. She also told about the existing Commissions for cooperation with diverse countries, employed by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which are the instruments of the Moscow Chamber in the field of foreign economic activity.
"We invite the best speakers to our conferences. On the one hand, they are professional experts in their field, and on the other, as a rule, they are representatives of governmental agencies. This is very important, because they are the people, on whom the decision making is depended. Thus, our Chamber acts as the platform for dialogue between business and state", - emphasized the MCCI’s President's Adviser.
Summing up the webinar, Mr. Vardanyan urged the participants to “work closely together in order to achieve common goals".