KEY CONCLUSIONS:
- The Government's focus is on non-commodity exports
“The goal set by the President is to accelerate economic growth, but <...> this cannot be achieved without exports. To this end, we drafted the Government’s Priority Plan to Support Exports with a clear target in place – to bring non-commodity export volumes to USD 200 billion by 2025,” said Stanislav Voskresensky, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
“When establishing the Russian Export Center, we strived to respond to all the needs of the private sector. We came up with a set of export support measures, developing a total of 110 products that cover the entire exports universe. Any issue that any exporter might have in this respect <...> must be resolved through one of these products <...>. Another key priority is the encouragement of new exporters,” said Petr Fradkov, Chief Executive Officer, Russian Export Center.
CHALLENGES:
- Insufficient support for exports from regional governments
“The regional component is vital here, and it is time for local authorities to show their commitment to promoting exports,” said Petr Fradkov.
- Internal barriers that hold back the exports potential
“We can no longer afford being somewhere far away. <...> If we want to be competitive globally, we need to make sure our delivery is fast and cheap,” said Vladislav Soloviev, Chief Executive Officer, RUSAL.
- External barriers
“A couple of weeks ago, when the APEC members held a meeting between trade ministers, the US Trade Representative confirmed that the US was moving away from free trade towards fair trade, which effectively means “elegant protectionism”. <...> This is the new reality that we need to be aware of and fine-tune our mechanisms accordingly,” said Stanislav Voskresensky.
“The global (Western) market is transforming incredibly fast, with e-commerce, shifting sales channels, demographic challenges, and protectionist policies combining to make it a complex and ever-changing marketplace today,” said Vladislav Soloviev.
“What is actually prohibiting us from [entering the EU market] is the [chemical] legislation. We would like to see some harmonisation of this legislation. It is very important to have open, transparent and fair customs treatment,” said Erkki Järvinen, President, Chief Executive Officer, Tikkurila.
SOLUTIONS:
Government support for export-oriented manufacturers on the federal and regional levels
"The exports investment lift is one of the important tools for the provision of government support and allocation of government resources. <...> The focus of the entire government support package for exports should be on the potentially or presently competitive regional products. <...> Exports are the only way to prove a product competitive," said Andrey Slepnev, Deputy Chief of Government Staff.
"The Government should put in place tax incentives for large investment projects. What we need is cheap and long-term funding for investments in future growth," said Andrey Guryev, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board, PhosAgro.
"Russian regions should have relevant infrastructure for exports support and a strategic exports development plan. We need to understand the strengths of a region and set out strategic targets for increasing the number of exporters, diversifying the exports geography, and so on," said Petr Fradkov.
- Comprehensive strategies to boost dedicated industries
"We are planning to review the export strategies by industry. The key challenge here is to adopt a holistic vision so that, let's say, the strategy for the automotive industry development and the strategy for the encouragement of automotive exports are not two separate documents. The export component should be part of the development strategy of every large industry," said Andrey Slepnev.
- Removal of the internal barriers that hold back the exports potential
"We export a significant volume of commodities. Hence, we need heavy infrastructure that keeps evolving. <...> We need special technologies, including electronic workflow and a tool to increase containerisation volumes of the Russian Railways. We have to develop our transport products, including the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Northeast Passage," said Alexandr Isurin, Chairman of the Executive Board, President, FESCO.