On the site of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Business Council C6, which is comprised of the leaders of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the largest megacities of the world, began its work.
This year, Moscow has become the site of the annual meeting of the Business Council C6, consisting of the Heads of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the six of the world's largest megacities - Moscow, Berlin, London, Paris, Beijing and São Paulo.
This year, in addition to the main participants of the Council, the leaders of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and representatives of the company "Lausanne Hospitality Consulting" are to take part in the event as observers.
Opening the meeting of the Business Council, the President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Vladimir Platonov, stated that he was glad to welcome his colleagues to Moscow and expressed the hope that the meeting would be very fruitful and useful: meetings with the leaders of the Moscow City Government, the City Duma and a number of round tables were planned in the program of the visit. The President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that the timing of the visit coincided very fortunately with the celebration of the Jubilee of the capital, which would allow the guests to see many interesting things.
On the site of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a round table "A City Comfortable for Life" was held. During the round table,the participants told about the main vectors of megacities’ development and the problems facing the cities, which they represent.
The main theme of the speech by the head of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce was an ambitious social project of the Russian capital - the Housing Renovation Program, which was approved this summer. "The program included about five thousand residential apartment buildings. Many of them were built in the 1950-60s and by now are in a shabby condition.
It was senseless to overhaul such houses”, Mr. Platonov said. “That is why the Renovation Program was launched. To do this, we had to make changes at the legislative level –both federal and Moscow’s. The law specifies definitive guarantees for the participants of the RenovationProgram. But at any time, according to the decision of the tenants, a house can be excluded from the program", said Mr.Platonov.
In addition to the owners of apartments, the program affects the interests of about 1,500 owners of non-residential premises and about 500 entrepreneurs, who lease these premises from the city. Basically, these are shops, beauty salons, workshops, housing services, located on the ground floors. "We protect the interests of businessmen in carrying out this large-scale Renovation Program, helping each to solve existing problems. This is an important area of activity for the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry ", said Mr. Platonov. The President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry specificallyunderlined the opportunities for foreign participation in this large-scale and long-term project: "The legislation does not preclude the participation of foreign investors in developing construction projects.“
As it turned out during the speeches, the need to upgrade housing stock is a problem for all of the major cities; the participants of the meeting describedways of solving it.
Accordingly, the Director General of the Paris-Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Etienne Jean Guyot, spoke about the "Big Paris" program, one of the components of which is a large-scale housing construction. Annually, it is planned to introduce 17 thousand square meters of housing, provided with infrastructure. And the houses are not built singularly, but inclusters. On their territories, there will always be retail stores within walking distance. It is one of the requirements that citizens make. Another important area of work of the Paris Chamber of Commerce is to promote the development of the retail trade system, including the services of attending caretakers. "Only 40 percent of retail stores have Internet sites, so e-commerce is also a very important area of our work," said Mr. Etienne Jean Guyot.
The representative of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Jorn Ferdinand Nolte, said that the developed infrastructure in residential areas is a very important factor; the authorities of the capital of Germany pay a great deal of attention to building a "smart city", in which people are comfortable to live, work, receive education and spend their leisure. "In our city, there is a shortage of land, so we are building with an eye to economy and utilizing advanced technologies", the expert said. Now 11 zones for housing construction have been allocated, on which it is planned to build 20 thousand apartments annually.
The Vice President of the Subcommittee of the Chinese Committee for the Promotion of International Trade of Beijing, Mr. Chang -Tsun Ma, said that China has extensive experience in cluster construction, and invited the participants of the Council to come to his country and visit construction sites there. He expressed confidence that the Chinese experts are ready for cooperation, including the field of building new housing. "Within the framework of our Chamber, an alliance of companies has been established, which are engaged in development projects",Mr. Chang Tzun Ma said. “We are attracting representatives of small and medium-sized businesses to get involved in the construction of transportation hubs, roads, metro. We invite the Moscow Chamber to take part in this alliance. "
Mr. Nikolay Gulyaev, the Head of the Department of Sports and Tourism of Moscow, expressed confidence that during the three-day visit, the guests will be able to see a lot of interesting things - there will be a lot of events,conducted on the City Day, including the opening of the "Zaryadie" Park. The official invited foreign guests to visit Russia the following year: "There will be a lot to see",Mr. Gulyaev assured them. The Deputy General Director of JSC "VDNH", Mr. Dmitry Mikhailov, acquainted the audience with the history of the legendary exhibition complex, and provided information about the plans for its reconstruction.
The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Mr. Ibrahim Caglar, said that he heads one of the oldest Chambers of Commerce in the world. In Turkey, every entrepreneur is obliged to join the CCI, therefore the Istanbul Chamber has more than 400 thousand members. He thanked the management of the MCCI for the opportunity to participate in the work of the Business Council, and expressed the readiness to join it. The Vice President of the Chamber of the Turkish capital, Mr. Goghan Murat Kalsin, told the participants about the main directions for the development of Istanbul, including such large-scale projects, as the construction of the third airport, the commissioning of which will increase passenger traffic from 20 to 40 million people per year, as well as the construction of the Istanbul Channel, which is intended to become a backup for the Bosporus.
Summarizing the results of the round table, Mr. Vladimir Platonov, noted that the importance of such meetings can not be overemphasized, since in the course of communication and during the exchange of opinions, new ideas and solutions arise. "In order to exchange information more quickly and to be able to discuss various projects and initiatives more than once a year, and in a continuous fashion, we propose to discuss a new Internet project, which we conditionally call the" Digital Chamber ". I hope that this project has a future and will receive serious support from all the participants of the meeting and the Business Council as a whole. "
After the round table, an excursion to the public and parliamentary center took place, where members of the Business Council were acquainted with the work of the Moscow City Duma, and also made an excursion around the MHD building. The work of the Business Council C6 will continue for another two days.
For reference : The Business Council of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the largest cities of the world was established in 2006, by analogy with the Council of the Mayors of Moscow, Berlin, London and Paris (M-4,) established in 2004, which was subsequently joined by the Mayor of Beijing.
On the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Moscow and Berlin, the first meeting of the Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the European capitals (Berlin, Moscow, Londonand Paris) and the Beijing Branch of the China Committee for the Promotion of International Trade took place on November 2, 2006, in Berlin. At this meeting, a decision was reached to establish the CCI Business Council (C5). Since then, the meetings of the Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry are held annually in each of the cities, participating in the Business Council. Since 2012, with the joined membership of the CCI of the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, the Business Council was named C6.