The Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce and Industry held an online business Conference on May 26: "Moscow-Saxony: Regional Cooperation Opportunities".
The focus of attention was on the problems, inherent in the development of hydrogen energy - a priority area for cooperation between Russia and Germany. In addition, discussed were the opportunities for cooperation between companies from Moscow and Saxony in the field of innovation, energy and modernization of production, biotechnology and medicine, as well as other promising areas for business development.
“Today, we would like to showcase specific examples and directions, in which our cooperation could be of mutual benefit, where we can integrate and create projects, aimed at benefiting both our and other countries," said Mr. Suren Vardanyan, the Vice President of the MCCI, in his opening remarks.
He also reminded that the MCCI has been working closely with the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce for a long time, and then gave the floor to Mr.Matthias Feige, the Director of Foreign Economic Relations of the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce, who thanked the MCCI for organizing the Conference. "We are going to talk about a very important topic that will determine our future. This topic is energy, which has always been important, but today we are talking about what opportunities there are for Chambers to promote this topic," emphasized Mr. Feige.
Dr. Rainer Wedde, the professor of law at the Wiesbaden Business School, gave practical advice for entrepreneurs on how to successfully conduct Russian-German business in crisis conditions. He reminded that cooperation between the two countries has existed for more than a century and this fact gives hope for cooperation in the future.
Mr. Anton Moskvin, the Vice President of “Rosatom Overseas”, made a presentation, titled "Hydrogen Energy - One of the Strategic Areas of Russian-German Cooperation”. He reminded that “Rosatom” is responsible for the development of the nuclear power program, nuclear technologies in Russia. "We represent practically the entire nuclear industry, associated with the actual application of nuclear technology in its various aspects.” Mr. Moskvin said.
He named hydrogen energy research as one of the directions that seems very promising. "We decided that hydrogen energy will be one of the strategic directions for “Rosatom”'s scientific and technological development. We have focused the efforts of several organizations on formulating strategic priorities in terms of the development of hydrogen energy technologies for applicable and relevant businesses, and we are actively implementing this program at the moment," the au-fait professional specified. He then focused his report on the presentation of this program, emphasizing that there are great prospects for cooperation between “Rosatom” and companies of various types in Germany.
Mr. Ivan Kolodov, the Deputy Director for Strategic Development of the Special Economic Zone SEZ "Technopolis "Moscow", presented the special economic zone in maximum detail. He stated that an extensive ecosystem has been formed in the SEZ, which consists of the following key elements: tax benefits, a wide range of services, production and engineering infrastructure, a comfortable urban environment, and personnel training for clients.
Mr. Hans-Ulrich Werner, the Director of the “MAVEG Maschinen-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft mbH/METALIQ GmbH”, spoke about the challenges of hydrogen power. "This technology is much more efficient than diesel or gasoline. Hydrogen can be used to replace old technologies with new ones," Mr. Werner pointed out. He also recalled the restrictions on the use of hydrogen, which are due to the fact that it is a gas that must be used with great care and in secure locations.
He also touched upon the topic of the so-called "green production" of hydrogen. "I must note that there is a limited number of places in the world where hydrogen can be produced in a 'green way. Such places are Russia, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Spain. Both solar and wind power are used. In Russia, it is water power," said Mr. Werner.
Mr. Sergey Teplov, the General Director of the Technopark “STROGINO”. spoke about the technopark in his presentation.”Biotechnology and medicine are the most important areas of commercial interaction between our regions. "There are enough opportunities for substantive positioning of German companies in cooperation with the “STROGINO Technopark," summarized Mr. Vardanyan.
The Director of the “HCMC Akademie - Medizintechnik-Seminare”, Dr. André Henke, spoke about biotechnology and medicine, as well as other promising areas of business development in Saxony.
Mr. Ulrich Briese, the Director of the “LMI Leipziger Messe International GmbH” (Leipziger Messe International GmbH), told about the Russian-German project "Moscow-Leipzig: industry exhibition for preservation and restoration of historical and architectural monuments".
The participants of the event recognised its full worth, noting that it will certainly help in finding new partners and resurrecting bilateral relations with the old ones.