In Kaluga, within the framework of the annual Kaluga Industrial Innovation Forum, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation’s Committee on Economic Integration and Foreign Economic Activity held a meeting.

The event was moderated by Andrei Spartak, Chairman of the Committee and Director of the All-Russian Research Market Research Institute OJSC, and by Violetta Komissarova, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Kaluga Region.

The meeting discussed the development of regional exports, tools to support and protect the interests of exporters abroad, the conditions for Russian goods and services to enter foreign markets, and the possibilities of the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry to promote exports.

The Governor of the Kaluga Region, Anatoly Artamonov, delivered a welcoming speech. The Governor stressed the importance of the subject matter of the committee meeting, mentioning the connection of export support issues to the implementation of the May decrees of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin ("… on the strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation until 2024"). 

The goal is to increase non-oil, non-energy exports to $250 billion a year by 2024.

“For this, it is necessary to increase export annually by 10-12 percent. [...] Over the last few years we have been fulfilling this task! In the Kaluga region, exports grew significantly, especially to countries far abroad. 70 percent - these are the products dealing with mechanical engineering and metalworking. [...] The region’s foreign representative offices of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Russian Export Center are of great assistance to the region.”

According to Spartak, Russian exports have been steadily growing in recent months, and state support measures for exports are becoming extremely important. He cited the example of the United States, which at the state level attaches great importance to short-term and pre-export financing, allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to this. Also, these countries actively subsidize the transportation of export products through their territory to the border. The system of patenting inventions and the protection of intellectual property in foreign markets is developing successfully. Andrei Spartak called on the meeting participants to correctly apply the subsidy mechanism and to use grants for research and development work.

Grigory Ladyshev, Director for Business Development of the Moscow Region and the Central Federal District of the Russian Export Center, introduced participants to the program of acceleration of SMEs, special export support programs, reduction of administrative procedures, and barriers in the field of international trade. These are special programs for reimbursing the cost of transporting high-tech products, compensation for part of the cost of patenting abroad, promotion of products to foreign markets (ensuring participation in international congress and exhibition events and business missions), placement of the company's products in the sample and demonstration pavilions in a foreign country. According to him, all the programs have been launched. They have shown their relevance and will continue their development in the current period.

Director of Government Relations of Cordiant OJSC, Committee Expert, Anton Akimov, noted in his speech that when entering foreign markets, it is very important to study trade protection measures. He elaborated on the types and features of such measures, as well as the practice of their use by foreign countries.

Director of the Department of External Relations of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Alexander Kopkov, stressed that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation actively uses various tools for the development of its foreign economic activity. 

These are the main branches of the Chamber of Foreign Economic Activity: 

• the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Committee for Economic Integration and Foreign Economic Activities and 
• the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Committee for Customs Policy, 
• interaction with the Russian Export Center and the Eurasian Economic Commission, 
• the World Federation of Chambers of Commerce, and exhibition activities.

Through the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, you can get "maps" for business trips to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries.

Committee expert and Head of Trade Analytics Group of the Department of International Business Cooperation and Public Relations of WTC Moscow, Alexei Savrasov devoted his presentation to the activities of the World Trade Center aimed at assisting regional business in promoting goods and services through resources of the WTC's partners and the WTCA around the world. A new project "Virtual Business Mission" was presented, dedicated to the development of business cooperation with foreign partners, the format of which includes a series of personal and virtual meetings of representatives of Russian business circles, as well as B2B negotiations. Alexei Savrasov also spoke in detail about the organization of business events (conferences, business missions, negotiations, training programs) using their own infrastructure and the capabilities of their partners and a section created on the World Trade Center website in order to attract the attention of Russian and foreign investors to the economic, industrial, and investment potential of the Russian regional companies, goods, and services through the demonstration of their presentation materials.

A representative of the WTC also invited members of the committee and companies of the Kaluga region to the next event in the “Business Facilitation” realm dedicated to mechanical engineering and machine-tool construction, which WTC Moscow will organize jointly with WTC Taipei on December 20, 2018 (the announcement will be posted soon). At the event, machine-tool builders and heads of business associations and industry-specific associations will discuss the development of this industry (“Production of the Means of Production”). There will also be a presentation of the Exhibition TIMTOS-2019 (March 2019, Taiwan), to which the host party will invite Russian colleagues.