MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) – An important disclaimer is located at the bottom of this article.
Sanctions against Russia have significantly accelerated the processes that have begun in recent years to shift the economic center of the world from the West to the East. The share of the European Union in Russia’s trade turnover after sanctions decreased by more than 2 times – from 36% to 15%, with friendly countries it increased 1.7 times – from 46% to 77%.
Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov stated this during the international forum “Russia 2030 and the New World Economic Order: Key Factors and the Role of Business,” which was held in Moscow on February 8 at the initiative of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
The minister noted that last year Russia achieved record levels of mutual trade with the countries of the EAEU, China, India, Egypt, the UAE, Brazil, Singapore, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and others. According to him, this is the result of intensive work to remove bottlenecks on highways and railways, to develop land checkpoints and approaches to seaports.
“Even 2 years ago, the dollar’s share in the structure of trade turnover accounted for half. Now it is 3 times smaller. At the same time, the importance of the ruble has doubled,” noted the head of the Ministry of Economic Development. The most active increase in the use of the ruble and the currencies of friendly countries in trade with the countries of Asia was almost 3 times, the Caribbean – more than 3 times, Africa – more than 8 times.
The Russian economy still remains open and competitive, confirmed Maxim Reshetnikov, emphasizing that further integration into the world economy is one of the strategic priorities of Russia’s foreign economic activity, outlined by the President. To achieve this, the Government has updated its foreign economic activity strategy.
Among the main tasks, the minister named the formation of a common market for trade and investment. “The volume of the market that is open to our country in the free trade regime is 350 million people. These are the CIS countries and Serbia. The movement to Asia began – a free trade agreement was concluded with Vietnam. In December 2023, negotiations with Iran were completed, an agreement with which will contribute to additional growth in trade turnover and the spread of preferences to more than 95% of Russian exports. Negotiations are currently underway with Egypt and Indonesia. We expect to complete negotiations with the UAE in 2024. By expanding the network of free trade zones with these countries, we plan to cover a market of up to 700 million people.”
Russia has international agreements on the promotion and mutual protection of investments with 65 countries. At this stage, work is underway on documents with India, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Congo, and the current agreement with China is being updated.
The minister recalled that since May 2022, a tariff incentive has been in force for the implementation of investment projects. Companies implementing projects in such priority sectors as transport, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, mining are exempt from import customs duties on high-tech equipment, spare parts and components, raw materials and materials that are not produced in Russia, but are needed for the implementation of projects. According to experts, due to the implementation of this measure, Russian business saved 1 billion rubles. “The project has already supported 11 investment projects worth 85 billion rubles in Karelia, the Komi Republic, Nizhny Novgorod, Lipetsk, Pskov and Moscow regions. Projects in metallurgy, machine tool building, manufacturing and chemical industries will be implemented here,” the minister said. The event was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexey Overchuk, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin, Member of the Board (Minister) for Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission Andrey Slepnev, Member of the Board (Minister) for Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex of the Eurasian Economic Commission Goar Barseghyan, Acting Head of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation Ruslan Davydov, as well as members of the Bureau of the Board of the RSPP.
Note; This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. This is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.
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