On 27 January, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a meeting of the Committee on the promotion of foreign economic activities, during which a working session was conducted with the Heads of the Commissions of the MCCI, focusing on cooperation with partners in foreign countries. In the MCCI, there are more than 40 Commissions, helping entrepreneurs to access other countries’ markets.
The Vice-president of the Moscow Chamber, Mr. Suren Vardanyan, outlined promising plans: the Chamber is planning to hold a meeting of trade representatives, to welcome to Moscow’s summit the C6 Group in September, 2017, to continue developing a network of the MCCI missions abroad.
The roster of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the C6 includes the CCIs of Moscow, Berlin, San Paulo, London, Beijing, Paris and holds annual meetings to share respective experiences. In 2016, in Paris, the dominant theme was the development of professional education in the fields of research training and the initiation of startups. Currently, the planning of the agenda for the meeting to be held in Moscow within the context of the Days of the City in September, 2017 is being arranged. Prospective topics will be localization issues and innovative production in Moscow.
Mr. Vardanyan also informed the Heads of the "civic" Commissions that during the Days of Russian Enterprise-2017, a Conference will be held, devoted to the problems of interaction between large enterprises and representatives of small businesses. The MCCI also plans to take part in the formation of the business program of the Moscow’s Urbanforum and the "Open innovations" forum. He noted that actively developing relations with the Russian export Center, which is expected to become the headquarters of all trade representation of the Russian Federation abroad.
The impetus for the development of this direction in the year 2017, in the opinion of Mr. Vardanian, is the activities of the mission of the MCCI in South Korea, which, on the basis of the relevant commission, may serve as a positive example.
In 2016, the representatives of business communities from Iran and the United Arab Emirates expressed their interest to invest in Moscow; mutual cooperation will continue.
The participants agreed that much attention should be given to maintaining cultural and educational links with partners in the CIS countries; discussed the possibility of a more active involvement of the rectors of Russian universities with the programs of cooperation and student exchange with universities in other countries, as well as the holding of a meeting of rectors of the Moscow universities on the premises of the Moscow Chamber.
In 2017 the Commissions plan to intensify the informative work on the MCCI’s website and hold a series of events on topics of technology transfer and localization, taking into account country-specific circumstances.
Suren Vardanyan invited the Heads of the Commissions to consider the possibility of a closer cooperation with technology parks of Moscow in order to consult Russian residents in matters of accessing foreign markets.