The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation held today a virtual roundtable discussion in which it highlighted a strong interest of Russian businesses to work with African partners.
Held under the title ‘‘On the road to the second Russia-Africa Summit’’, the round table was organized in advance of the Second Summit Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum to be held later this month in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The challenges to developing business ties between Russia and Africa, such as addressing the lack of information about the market potential and local business frameworks, were discussed by the participants.
African Division Head of the chamber, Ilya Nesterov said on the occasion that they have a strong interest to work with Africa. “Russia sees Africa as a key partner in the new multipolar world, he added.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation has got 54,000 members.
According to Nesterov, “Russia is a highly competitive but complex market which requires some assistant and that needs work. We are interested for the development of business association especially in small and medium business.”
AFROCOM (Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African Countries) Chairman, Igor Morozov said “over the last few years we have found ourselves in absolutely different geopolitical reality.”
In just four years we have witnessed a transition from a unipolar structure to multipolar structure, he noted, pointing out that a new multipolar world is under formation.
Therefore, Russia is looking to Africa for new partners and Africa is a key partner in the new multipolar world.
“We are closely monitoring how quickly and how fast African nations are gaining economic sovereignty and digital transformation,” Morozov said, adding that more than 700 million of the 1.3 billion Africans are young and this presents a great opportunity.
The youth are builders of the new world order. They are going to be leaders of this world, he underlined.
According to Morozov, Russia can help Africa to develop its digital economy as it is a leader in business-to-business digital platforms and petrochemical, among others.
He further pointed out that Russian natural gas can power Africa’s industrial transformation and boost economic partnership.
Some 200 representatives of African countries, AFROCOM (Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African Countries), relevant ministries, industry and business associations, top managers of African companies as well as leading Russian and African media participated in the round table discussion held in Addis Ababa.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency