On June 26-28, 2014 Business Council Summit C6 was held in Sao Paulo. It was a meeting of the heads of Chambers of Commerce of the largest cities in the world: Moscow, Berlin, Paris, London, Beijing and Sao Paulo. Moscow Chamber of Commerce vice president Mr Sergei Shmakov attended the meeting. The main issue for discussion was urban development.
Mr Thomas Zanotti, Director of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Trade of Sao Paulo Chamber of Commerce presented a project that demonstrated how the private sector can contribute to addressing economic, social and environmental challenges that big cities face.
According to Thomas Zanotti, economic and social problems of megacities can be solved only jointly - by the government and business. "That is why organization of such meetings is very useful for exchange of experience" - he stressed.
Mr Sergei Shmakov, Vice-President of the Moscow CCI, made a presentation entitled "Principles of Urban Development in Moscow" with an emphasis on development of the territories of New Moscow.
All participants agreed that successful urban development depends on successful overcoming of transportation problems. The parties shared their plans for development of public transport and underground systems.
Mr Colin Stanbridge, London Chamber of Commerce CEO, warned that the development of railways in the metropolitan areas was a very delicate question, because it created problems such as pollution and noise in addition to the high cost of building.
As part of C6 Business Council meeting’s agenda bilateral negotiations of representatives of Chambers of Commerce took place. According to MCCI vice-president Mr Sergei Shmakov, "there was a pool of entrepreneurs who were interested in developing partnership with Russia in Sao Paulo. We agreed to intensify the exchange of information to enable development of partners' network between businessmen of two cities".
About C6 Business Council
Business Council of Chambers of Commerce of the largest cities in the world was formed after the Council of Mayors of Moscow, Berlin, London and Paris (M4) had been established in 2004.
On the initiative of Moscow and Berlin CCI, the first meeting of the presidents of European capitals's CCI (Berlin, Moscow, London, Paris) and the Beijing Branch of China Development Assistance Committee of international trade was prepared and held on November 2, 2006 in Berlin. At this meeting it was decided to establish a Chamber Business Council (C5). Since then, the meetings of heads of Chambers of Commerce have been held annually in each of the cities, participating in Business Council. Since 2012, when CCI of Sao Paulo joined the union, the Business Council have been called C6.