MOSCOW, February 7 Over the past two years, Russian companies have made a breakthrough in import substitution, which is increasingly becoming an import priority, said Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
“Western sanctions are truly a window of opportunity for Russian companies to implement import substitution programs. Over the past two years, companies have made a breakthrough in import substitution, which, indeed, is increasingly becoming import advance,” he said during the industry forum “From Import Substitution to import advance» within the framework of the Russian Business Week 2024 at the RSPP.
The fact is, he added, that “this import substitution rests on a new technological base,” and not just on the search for new partners who make the same products that Western companies and former technology partners that left Russia made.
According to him, it is significant that in 2023 more than 35% of Russian companies implemented investment projects, and the same number intend to implement them this year.
““And we are talking about large investment projects. This is exactly what can be called import advance. This is investment in such import substitution, which is based on technological innovations, on the modernization of production, and so on,” Shokhin emphasized.
Added that all this is extremely important today, because despite the fact that windows of opportunity are open, nevertheless, the import dependence of Russian companies is still quite high, more than 60% of both companies and industries record this imported technological dependence.
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