MOSCOW, Oct. 20Representatives of business and government discussed the architecture of the updated national project «International Cooperation and Export» at the panel session «The New Look of the National Project «International Cooperation and Export»: Business View» of the «Made in Russia» forum, reports the Russian Export Center (VEB.RF Group).
“Aimed at strengthening Russian non-resource, non-energy exports, the national project is one of the few that works in the G2B format, which determines the key role of business as a client and beneficiary in its implementation. Therefore, companies and business communities had the opportunity to tell what support measures they lacked in the previous edition national project and what horizons can and should be explored,” the message says.
As the moderator of the session, President of Business Russia Pavel Titov, noted, there are many opportunities at the moment. “In the last year and a half, everyone has been somewhat nervous, but absolutely confident, talking about new opportunities for export. And this is true: new opportunities and new markets have opened up for us. Partly this happened forcedly. And at the moment, the issue of shaping the shape of the national project is quite urgent and extremely necessary. Because we are talking about our future victories. We can gain a lot by building elements of support for export business, but if we do it wrong, we can also lose a lot. I encourage everyone to tune in to the joint work of the state and business in order to benefit from the current situation even more than we could have expected. And our, “Business Russia”, main mission is to make communication between business and government as effective as possible,” he said.
In turn, REC Vice President Alexey Solodov noted that the country now has enough tools to ensure sufficient competitiveness of domestic products, but in order to penetrate markets occupied by competitors, assistance from both the state and development institutions is required. He clarified that the REC is actively working in this direction, developing and expanding measures to support exporters within the framework of the national project, and dwelt in detail on recent marketing collaboration initiatives, in particular events to promote the national brand “Made in Russia” with the participation of Russian athletes.
Like the national project itself, the session was divided into three main blocks. Representatives from the industrial, agro-industrial and logistics sectors shared their opinions and suggestions, as well as personal stories.
The discussion was opened by Nikita Ryblenkov, General Director of the Novostal-M metallurgical holding. Russia's largest exporter of construction steel took on the risks of a pioneer and entered the markets of West Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, which competitors had not explored before. The decision is part of the company's strategy, which is confident that the future is made here and now. Therefore, as Nikita Ryblenkov explained, in order for Russian products to sell well all over the world in 20 years, be competitive and help develop the Russian economy, we need to start today.
In his speech, he noted the openness of federal authorities. Each decision of the ministries and departments is justified with arguments. Among the necessary measures, he named “the vector of shifting state support from targeted allocations of money, for example, a subsidy for certification, a subsidy for transportation, to longer-term, stable measures in the form of subsidizing the loan rate.”
“For business, using the example of metallurgy, I will say that this is even preferable, because it is much more important for us that we know that our loan agreements with the bank are valid, they will not suddenly stop, and without some targeted subsidies, large businesses can survive. It may even be more expedient to redistribute them and leave them for small and medium-sized businesses,” said the director of the holding.
According to him, “prioritization on a geographical basis is also important.”
«In many of the friendly countries we are talking about (South America, Africa, Asia), the industrial sector used to enter there through traders, with foreign financing. Today we independently lead to the end client. This is a huge burden on working capital. Perhaps we too Today we see readiness, this will be finalized next year in the form of geographical priorities, when a certain measure of state support, either in a larger volume or in general, exists specifically for certain territories,” Ryblenkov added.
The largest Russian poultry meat producer, the Resurs group of agricultural enterprises, which also has lamb, semi-finished meat products, sausages and delicatessen products, vegetable oils, flour, and dairy products in its assortment, was one of the first to receive the right to supply halal products to the countries of the Middle East. Having reached an annual live weight production of poultry meat of more than 1 million tons, the company began supplying products to China by rail, the Philippines and Iran. The entire geography of supplies covers 60 countries. Last year, Resurs exported 144 thousand tons of poultry meat alone, ranking 20th in the world in terms of production volume and 5th in Europe according to one of the world's leading industry magazines, Poultry International.
“In many ways, it was possible to achieve such high results thanks to the implementation of the National Project “International Cooperation and Export”. Together with the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, Rosselkhoznadzor, REC, Delovaya Rossiya, Agroexport, and business associations, large-scale work has been done to open markets for Russian agricultural products, coordination of supply requirements, development of measures of state support for the export of agricultural products. We actively participate in events to support and promote exports: business missions, exhibitions, interact with agricultural attachés and trade representatives, use reviews and analytics of Agroexport, Single Window REC, — said Dmitry Antonov, senior vice-president of GAP Resurs, — Russian producers are now experiencing the negative consequences of sanctions and trade restrictions. We need new alternative routes and methods of delivering products. We must develop our own transport and logistics infrastructure, «green corridors» to form a system for making financial transactions, an insurance system, formats for presence and promotion in foreign countries, as well as implement joint projects with friendly states.”
Andrey Grechkin, director of Dalreftrans (FESCO), the largest transport and logistics company in Russia and the largest operator of refrigerated transportation, spoke about the fact that logistics is a key factor for successful exports. According to him, the trend of the last two years has been geo-expansion, and therefore Russian shipping enterprises must look at new markets in order to improve the return on capital investments in the fleet and container equipment, protect themselves from seasonal and political risks, and increase their capabilities.
“In this regard, it is important to work very closely in conjunction with Russian exporters — in this regard, interaction with Agroexport of the Ministry of Agriculture is very indicative. On-site business missions help to identify interest in new, underdeveloped markets, understand the legal and logistical nuances of entering them. Get a live feedback from potential new partners of Russia. One of the key areas of state support for exports concerns the logistics aspect. I would also like to note the REC program for co-financing the participation of Russian exhibitors in foreign exhibitions and business missions. FESCO, within the framework of this program, participates in the REC exposition at CIIE November 5-10, and also plans a joint development at Food Africa on December 10-12,” Andrey Grechkin clarified.
The session participants emphasized the importance of extending the National Project “International Cooperation and Export” until 2030 and proposed incentive mechanisms for manufacturers based on their scaling experience. Among the proposals: maintaining and increasing financing limits, preferential loans, development of financial documents for the agricultural sector, risk reduction, development of e-commerce channels, creation of industrial zones in friendly countries, active promotion of Russian manufacturers, subsidies for export logistics and certification.
Business needs to increase the density of its presence abroad, subsidize the construction of commercial and household infrastructure, finance pilot projects and support buyers; the goals, objectives, and KPIs of the project must be linked to the export strategies of industries and companies; it is necessary to provide cross-cultural support — training for business and students, as well as image support from government agencies. All this will be taken into account when “rebooting” the National Project.