The President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Vladimir Platonov spoke at the XIIth meeting of the Russian-Arab Business Council. His topic of discussion focused on the subject, whose theme was: "Moscow - the metropolis of the future: creating new opportunities”. The session opened on April 8, at the Central Exhibition Hall “Manezh”, in Moscow.
"One of the priorities of the MCCI is foreign economic policy. We are interested in developing relations with foreign partners and are ready to provide support to contractors and partner organizations in various areas, - said Vladimir Platonov.
He reported that the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry is active in Arab countries, organizing business missions and direct business contacts. In particular, between 2018 and 2019, the MCCI’s delegations had visited Kuwait twice, visited Bahrain. During the visits, bilateral negotiations and meetings were held with the leadership of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the largest companies of Kuwait and Bahrain.
"The issues of establishing and intensifying cooperation with Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Oman are also under consideration. We have an effective Commission on Foreign Economic Cooperation with partners in the United Arab Emirates," said the Head of the MCCI.
The MCCI is working on bringing together businesses from different countries. The X Moscow Urban Forum established the Council of the Heads of the CCIs of business city-centres of the Euro-Asian economic space. It has already been joined by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Moscow, Bratislava, Karachi, Istanbul and Jakarta, as well as a number of Russian regions. Mr. Platonov invited the participants of the Business Council to join the work of the Council in order to unite businesses of different countries and regions.
The development of digital technologies is becoming increasingly important today. Mr. Platonov described to the entrepreneurs from Arab countries the online platform for business proposals, designed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, - the "Business Market". "The main goal of this digital project is to help members of the Chambers and their partners to interact with each other more actively and promptly, while benefiting from their membership.” said the Head of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mr. Leonid Kostroma, The Director of the City Investment Management Agency, spoke about the investment potential of Moscow. He reported that the volume of the city's targeted investment program for 2019-2021 is 25 billion dollars. The speaker presented the supporting measures that the city provides for investors. In particular, he informed that the Government concluded the first two offset contracts in the sphere of medicine. The total volume of investments will amount to 140 million dollars.
Mr. Igor Ischenko, the Director General of the Moscow Technopolis SEZ, presented the opportunities for Special Economic Zones’ residents, including a "four-zero exemption", i.e. a 10-year exemption from taxes, including VAT, transportation and real estate taxes.
Ms. Tatyana Redko, the Deputy Director General of Renault, Russia, emphasized that the successful localization of Renault's production was largely due to the support of the city authorities for entrepreneurship and a favorable investment climate.
The quality and volume of telecommunication services are of great importance for doing business in the modern world. Mr. Igor Egorov, a member of the Management Board of PJSC “MTS” and the Director of the Moscow Region, said that Moscow is now one of the top three cities in terms of the quality of communication services provided. The MTS pays great attention not only to the expansion of its network, but also to the development of the Internet of Things platform and the use of Big Data for the development of new services for business, in particular chat bots used for communication with consumers.
At the end of the session, the Agreement on Cooperation between the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Moscow Export Center was signed. The document was signed by the President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Vladimir Platonov and IEC Director General, Mr. Kirill Ilyichev.
The event was supported by the Moscow City Government and the Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow