By Kester Kenn
Klomegah, GNA Moscow Bureau Chief
MOSCOW, Russia,
June 03, GNA – Under the theme “Russia–Africa: Partnership for
Development,” the Russian Chamber of Commerce of Russian Federation and
the National Guild of Producers and Importers have held a one-day’s business
forum that provided the opportunity for open and comprehensive discussions on a
wide range of critical business issues between Russia and Africa.
A press release
at the end of the programme, noted the importance of African countries as
strategic partners, and their reliable business institutions in the provision
of solutions to challenges facing economic cooperation between Africa and
Russia.
It said the
forum was a step towards the preparation of a document with fact-based research
from business executives to aid new thinking and approaches in shaping policy
directions and their implementation.
The programme
involved three plenary sessions – cooperation between Russia-Africa in
agriculture, development of industry production, energy sector and transport in
African countries and cooperation in the area of medicine.
The Chairman of
the Board of the Federation, Ekaterina Popova, at the plenary session,
discussed at length, global challenges and the development of economic
cooperation between Russia and Africa.
She underlined
the need to do more to deepen their economic ties. Russia’s total exports to
Africa over the past decade amounted to about US$100 billion.
“By the way,
this is the only continent where, in recent years, there has been a significant
increase in Russian exports.
“At the same
time, there are significant barriers to our business relations, without which
it is impossible to talk about the pace of breakthrough in development of
Russia-African cooperation,” Popova told the gathering.
Georgy Petrov,
Advisor to the President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI),
said “if the task of the government is to create good conditions for doing
business on the African continent, then entrepreneurs have their own goals – to
realize this potential”.
Russian
companies such as Gazprom, Rosatom, Lukoil and others have already established
strong foothold on the African market.
He added that,
small and medium-sized businesses would, however, have to do a lot for the
realization of their goals in Africa.
Last year, the
Federal Chamber held presentations on the economic, industrial and investment
potential of Ethiopia and Mauritius. Russian CCI President Sergei Katyrin met
with ambassadors from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan and a number of other
African countries.
This year, the
largest Association of Russian Entrepreneurs co-organized meetings of the
Presidents of Zimbabwe and Angola with business representatives during their
official working visits to Moscow. Business missions were organized to South
Africa and Nigeria.
Director of the
Department of Asia, Africa and Latin America of the Ministry of Economic
Development, Alexander Dianov, noted that the role of the African continent in
the world economy was constantly growing.
The pace of
development of African countries, he said, was ahead of the main trends, and
almost 70 percent of their population, under the age of 30.
“In these
circumstances, Russia’s return to Africa plays a special role. If in Soviet
times, the development of our relations with the countries of the continent was
dictated mainly by political considerations, now economic interests come to the
fore in a different way,” Dianov added.
Ekaterina
Shulekina, the Program Director at the Chamber of Commerce, said in an
interview that Russia had been rendering enormous support and was still
searching to identify mutual investment sectors in Africa.
The forum was
going to facilitate meaningful networking connections on a large-scale and to
encourage ideas that could change the economic profile in Africa.
She added that
many Russian companies were getting increasingly interested in advancing
business cooperation and therefore the preparatory business gathering could
help build business confidence, contribute to the sound development of these
relations and to outline new forms of cooperation during the Russia-Africa
Summit to be held October in Sochi.
The
participants included representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Russian Federation, the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Economic Development,
and Agriculture.
There were also
leading experts in the field of trade and economic relations with African
countries, ambassadors and entrepreneurs from African countries – Ethiopia,
Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mauritius and
South Africa.
GNA
