On November 30, 2020, an online meeting of the Heads of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the world's largest cities (Moscow, Berlin, Paris, London, Beijing, Sao Paulo and Vienna), the members of the C7 Council, was held. The meeting was held on the initiative of the Vienna Chamber of Economy, which chairs the Council this year (the face-to-face meeting in the Austrian capital was postponed until 2021). The meeting was attended by Mr. Vladimir Platonov, the President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Mr. Suren Vardanyan, the Vice President of the MCCI in charge of international affairs.
The key issue of the discussion was the current epidemiological situation and its impact on the economies of the Council’s member cities, as well as methods to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Mr. Platonov, the President of the MCCI, briefly described the current situation in Moscow, as well as the measures that have been taken to support business stimulation and purchasing ability. He noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic, by the end of 2020, even taking into account the 8% growth of income relative to 2019, the total budget losses will exceed 500 billion rubles.
The President of the MCCI mentioned that Moscow had developed four packages of support measures for the capital's business, for a total of about 90 billion rubles. These are cancellations of rent payments, deferrals of advance payments, compensations for property tax and land payments, as well as assistance in crediting and subsidizing small and medium business (14 types of city subsidies). These measures cover 13 sectors of the economy and more than 45 thousand organizations, with a total of 770,000 employees. In many ways, it was the city's subsidies that helped keep unemployment from rising amid an initial decline in income.
As part of the support for Moscow business in the midst of the pandemic, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a Rapid Advisory Center, including consideration for circumstances and cases of force majeure. The MCCI received about 3,800 appeals on its hotline. Also, more than 3 500 applications of the force majeure were received in regard to domestic contracts. However, more than 70% of appeals were rejected, because the circumstances cited by entrepreneurs were not classified as force majeure or the necessary documents were not submitted.
In cooperation with the Moscow Business Protection Headquarters, based on the appeals of entrepreneurs, "Solution Algorithms" for business were developed. The Moscow Chamber of Commerce has also developed and successfully applied a number of new projects, aimed at developing and supporting Moscow businesses during the pandemic, such as:
- conducting 100% online exhibitions on the platform "Business Market;
- creating a library of legal cases within the framework of the MCCI project "Documents in order";
- remote consulting on FEA and compliance issues.
- The meeting addressed the issue of creating a unified platform for communication and review of projects within the C7 Council. The MCCI, which had previously taken initiatives in this direction, proposed to consider and discuss the possibility of using the "Business Market" platform.
The event also addressed the issues of urbanization and the development of “smart" cities. Mr. Vardanyan, the Vice President of the MCCI, noted that Moscow can be called a rapidly developing "smart" city. This is due to the fact that there is such a project as “Electronic Services”. Through the public services’ portal, residents can pay traffic fines, make appointments to the doctor, etc. At the moment, there are more than 260 services. Also, successfully implemented, are the projects "Active Citizen", remote control of health and education systems, robotization of production, development of security systems and management of municipal and engineering infrastructure.
The Vice President noted that the city project "Moscow Innovation Cluster", a flexible association of diversified enterprises in one geographical area for the sake of achieving common market goals, was successfully launched, together with the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Moscow Innovation Cluster unites all existing innovation infrastructure, human and production potential of the city in a single system. The purpose of the Cluster is to create favourable conditions in the capital for manufacturers of high-tech products and to focus on exports.
The Vienna Economic Chamber, which currently chairs the Council, expressed its interest in the Cluster and the "Documents in Order" project. It was proposed to exchange ideas for the development of these projects.
At the end of the meeting, the parties exchanged experiences on the implementation of current projects, as well as shared plans for the near future.