Mr. Vladimir Platonov, the President of the MCCI, took part in the Moscow-Italy Economic Conference "Moscow - City for Business and Investment”.
It was organized by the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce together with the Government of Moscow and support of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.
The event was held at the St. Regis, Moscow Nikolskaya Hotel, in the format of a video conference with presentations of business and government entities from Moscow and Milan. The Conference brought together over a hundred representatives of business community and government structures from Russia and Italy. The moderators of the conference were the Vice President of Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Dmitry Kurochkin, and the journalist of Radio 24, Ms. Laura Bettini.
At the conference, the possibilities and prospects of strengthening bilateral relations and investment attractiveness of Moscow were discussed. Speakers paid special attention to the possibilities of cooperation in transportation and industry, introduction of advanced technologies in medicine and biotechnology, the possibility of creating medical centers with foreign participation on the territory of the Moscow International Medical Cluster in “Skolkovo", as well as within the scope of the emerging Innovation Science and Technology Center "Valley of the Moscow State University".
Mr. Kurochkin addressed the conference guests with a welcoming speech. He cited statistics on the foreign trade turnover, in which Italy holds leading positions: "The trade turnover between organizations, registered in Moscow and the Italian partners reached $3.3 billion in the first half of this year. In my opinion, these are eloquent numbers, which characterise the current state of our relations and create a good reserve for the future".
Mr. Vincenzo Trani, the President of the IRTP, reminded that the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce is an organization that has been successfully building `’bridges`’ between our countries for more than 50 years. And now it is especially important to go together on a "mental journey", i.e. to actively share experience and knowledge with each other, which will greatly expand bilateral cooperation in many areas.
Mr. Sergey Cheremin, the Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations of Moscow, recounted that in 2020 there was a decline in foreign economic activity between the countries, but in 2021 the situation is brighter. Foreign trade turnover increased by 1.5 times compared to that of last year, amounting to $3.3 billion. About 200 Italian companies are now working in Russia and this contributes to a stable trend of bilateral cooperation. Russia and Italy are united by partnerships and many years of business relations. Moscow has put forward its candidacy as a city that would like to host EXPO-2030, and as part of this initiative a delegation of the Moscow government recently held a meeting in Milan to study the experience of EXPO, which was held in Italy in 2015 with great success.
Italian companies, which are doing business in Russia, are very influential in changing the appearance of the capital. One of the most interesting projects that have been implemented by Italian partners is the reconstruction of "Dynamo" stadium and the construction of a business park with a Hyatt hotel. This unique project was implemented by Codest (IRTP member) together with the Italian agency SACE and VTB Bank (IRTP member). It is unique in that different organizations joined together to implement a very large and socially important infrastructural business project.
Giorgio Starace, Italy's Ambassador to Russia, made a video address: "We want to increase Italy's presence in this magnificent city. The potential of the city’s future remains huge, with great growth opportunities precisely in what Italy is famous for its infrastructure, agro-food complex, pharmaceutical sectors, oil, gas, petrochemicals, tourism, art. Moscow, which has developed very rapidly, is the most important center and It is not a coincidence that Italy is among the main, leading trade partners of Moscow. All the leading Italian companies have their offices in Russian cities”.
Welcoming speeches were also made by the Lombardy Region Deputy President for International Affairs, Mr. Alan Christian Rizzi, and Mr. Pavel Dorokhin, Russian Trade Representative to Italy, who spoke about the establishment of a Business Club, which will become a permanent discussion platform for Italians and Russians.
The President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Vladimir Platonov, stated that the cooperation with the Italian colleagues is one of the priorities of the MCCI international activity. The partner relations between Moscow and Italy have a long business history. Even in the current difficult period, the Chamber of Commerce continues to maintain relations with its Italian colleagues. The MCCI representatives returned just on 9 November from Bolzano, where an event on cooperation between Moscow and South Tyrol was held and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Handicraft and Agriculture of Bolzano.
Mr. Platonov expressed gratitude to the Russian Trade Representation in Italy for the constant support and initiative to expand geography of cooperation with Italian regions. The Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry hopes to develop cooperation in such areas as ecology, health care, tourism, agriculture, information technology, mediation, expert evaluation of projects prior to their introduction into the markets of Moscow and Italy. The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry told about the Chamber’s projects contributing to the development of foreign economic relations such as the electronic platform of business proposals "Business Market", the library of legal solutions "Documents in order", online exhibitions, etc.
Russian and Italian companies, participating in the event, presented their business proposals for the development of bilateral business cooperation in the online format. The conference resulted in identifying promising projects in healthcare, construction, trade and transport, which are to be implemented jointly by Russian and Italian companies with the support and assistance of IRTP, the Moscow Government, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.