WTC's Moscow CEO talks on Russia in Asian markets

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – Vladimir Salamatov, General Director of the World Trade Center Moscow, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the cooperation and trade prospects of Russia with countries in the Asian region:

The matters related to cooperation and trade with Asian region countries will be extensively discussed at the forthcoming forum. For Russia, it’s a very important vector. Asia today provides new opportunities for our country, opens up new markets and present new partners; finally, it means success in the development of Russia’s entire Far East.

It does not mean we are making a U-turn from the West towards the East. In the world of today, business does not choose between geographic areas, it selects partners, with whom it can build effective relationships. The “Eastern vector” must be reinforced, and we’ve been hearing that for a long time. We must not waste time, and we must find and use effective mechanisms to expand the foothold of our manufacturers, products and technologies in Asian markets, which are developing very actively.

Russia has good prospects of expanding trade with the Asian region, especially in the South-East Asia, where new consumption and economic development centers are emerging.

This year, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) started its work. It has Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia as members. De facto, we are seeing emergence of a new regional market, which has no internal barriers to trade, which is based on uniform rules, and on the WTO principles. It will help create new competitive advantages and new export opportunities.

For the past few years, development of international trade has been largely influenced by regional integration processes. Regional and cross-regional trade associations are advancing in the foreground. The WTO today is a group of 160 nations, and it has registered 393 free-trade zones and customs unions. There are initiatives to build larger units: trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic partnerships. Speaking about the Asian region, we are seeing China initiating creation of an Asian-Pacific regional free-trade zone. According to estimates made by the Eurasian Economic Commission, by 2020, trade carried out within the framework of regional trade units will increase from the current 20% to 60-70%.

EAEU is in active talks about setting up a free-trade zone in South-East Asia, for instance, with Vietnam and India. We’ve got excellent opportunities in Asian markets. But to fully realize them in the non-commodity sector, we need to continuously enhance the competitiveness of our products, services, production facilities. Otherwise, producers from other countries will occupy our former market positions.

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