Russia, Africa and SPIEF'21: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities
The 24th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF'21) held on June 2-5, and under theme: "Together Again - Economy of New Reality" provided open platforms to exchange the best entrepreneurship practices and key admirable competences in providing sustainable development.
While the theme reflects
the ultimate desire and initiative to review post-pandemic steps in
connecting Russia with global businesses, outline strategies for
stepping up sustainable economic development, it further offered the
chance for putting back or revive inter-personal interaction.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin explicitly emphasized that point, addressing
the plenary session on June 4, "We are pleased that it is Russia that is
hosting the first global business event after a long forced break where
members of the global business community can communicate with each
other not only using advance telecommunication technologies but
in-person as well."
In
his address to forum participants, who came mostly from Europe, Asia
and Africa, Putin talked about some economic achievements and tasks
facing Russia. He further spoke about the importance of national
projects as drivers of economic growth, the vaccines and foreign
tourism, as well as the readiness to forge closer and long-term
economic, scientific, and technical cooperation with its foreign
partners and share experience in various significant economic areas.
Putin
was joined via videolink by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, to address the
gathering. According to forum documents, about 2,000 foreign
participating groups came to St. Petersburg. There were delegations from
Germany, France and Italy, and from Asia such as Qatar, Japan and
China.
Qatar
mounted the biggest cultural and arts stand. On the territory, the Doha
Hall was a space where the heads of ministries and departments, heads
of key companies of the country, representatives of public organizations
discussed the strengthening of economic and political relations between
states, business and cultural ties, cooperation in the field of ecology
and nature protection, sports and innovation, health care and
information technology.
There
were business dialogues between Russia and a number of foreign
countries, for example Russia-Africa. The Russia-Africa Business
Dialogue session, moderated by Professor Irina Abramova, Director of the
Institute of African Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences,
featured Mikhail Bogdanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Russian Federation; Special Presidential Representative for the Middle
East and Africa.
The
Guest Speaker - Eduard Ngirente, Prime Minister of the Republic of
Rwanda; Rania Almashat, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt;
Alexander Saltanov, Chairman of the Association for Economic Cooperation
with African States (AECAS); and heads of major Russian and African
companies - Transmashholding, Uralchem, Russian Railways, the UN Least
Developed Countries Technology Bank, Afreximbank and others took part in
the discussion.
The
Russia-Africa Business Dialogue session was part of the brain storming
session in preparation for the forthcoming second Russia-Africa summit
planned for 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Speakers at the session set
the stage and attempted to provide answers to a few questions: What
agenda will Russia and Africa follow at the 2022 summit? What business
strategy will serve both Russian and African interests? What Russian
investment projects had already been implemented on the African
continent? Are there new mechanisms and instruments for the
Russia-Africa partnership being developed?
"Africa
is first and foremost about people. What kind of water they will drink,
what they will eat, how they will develop, what kind of education they
will have. Our knowledge is our capital and our competitive advantage,"
Professor Irina Abramova, Director of Institute for African Studies
under the Russian Academy of Sciences, remarked while moderating the
session.
As
previously and oftentimes, Abramova has explained that cooperation
between Russia and Africa must be of a targeted nature, that is, there
needs to be a gradual transition to individual concrete work with the
specific countries. This will serve as proof of Russia's deep and
systematic approach to its policy for enhancing relations with Africa.
She
has also proposed that, in addition to the framework for Russian policy
in Africa and Russia's renewed strategy for foreign economic activity,
the Russian Federation develops an implementable trade and investment
strategy for Africa, move forward in practical terms in identifying
partner countries and in setting concrete objectives.
During
his address at the opening, Rwandan Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has
called upon Russians to consider increasing investment in Africa. That
Africa has great opportunities that investors from Russia can take
advantage of, among these, are the continent's young population and
workforce, the fast rate at which urbanization is taking place, and the
huge potential that has been demonstrated in technological progress in
areas like telecommunications and digitization of the society.
"Therefore,
advancing our common prosperity agenda would imply translating the
existing business opportunities into reality. And this calls for
important flows of investments in priority areas," he said. In addition,
pointed at the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and
regional integrations of economic communities as another priority to
advance quickly Africa's growth agenda and position the continent as an
investment destination.
"This
could be an opportunity for Russian businesses to invest in
infrastructures such as roads, railways, ports, hydropower plants, and
internet connectivity that facilitate trade on the continent of 1.3
billion consumers. The investment required is estimated at US$130
billion to US$170 billion per year," he said.
He
also highlighted the need for Africa to build its own capacity, working
together with partners including Russia, to undertake scientific
research to manufacture vaccines for various diseases, including
Covid-19.
Mikhail
Bogdanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa,
noted that Russian-African cooperation is gaining new momentum ahead of
the second Russia-Africa summit in 2022, and recalled the need to create
mechanisms to support Russian business in Africa, citing Russian
President Vladimir Putin's message to African leaders on the occasion of
Africa Day on 25 May.
"Today,
we have reached a point where there is a need to intensify our
cooperation by creating new fundamental mechanisms to support Russian
business in Africa through so-called economic diplomacy, which consists
of close cooperation between the Russian Foreign Ministry and line
ministries and organizations," he said.
Bogdanov
informed that the Secretariat of Russia-Africa Partnership Forum,
created in 2020 on the instruction of the Russian president, has become
the main body to organize the upcoming Russia-Africa summit, develop and
intensify friendly and effective bilateral business dialogue with
African countries. The Association of Economic Cooperation with African
States (AECAS) was also established, headed by Alexander Saltanov, who
for many years the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister with responsibility
for Africa direction.
Taking
his turn at the session, Alexander Saltanov, Chairman of AECAS,
remarked that the need for state support for Russian companies is
crucial for making a real breakthrough on the African continent, - and
in this sense, it is useful idea creating Direct Investment Fund.
Saltanov
further spoke of the need to create representative offices, logistics,
and service centers of Russian business in the form of public-private
partnerships in several countries or regions of Africa to organize
systematic sales of Russian products on the continent.
"We
can also use the experience of the Soviet Union to work in Africa - for
example, creating a foreign trade company that would coordinate efforts
in a particular country or in a particular region of Africa to assemble
the products offered by Russian business in the market. One company
will probably not be able to cope with this, but when there is some
structure working in this direction, it will speed up the process," he
stressed.
Saltanov
said that an essential topic on the Russian-African cooperation agenda
relates promotion of information. Information exchange in terms of
business is also necessary - an agreement was signed during the SPIEF'21
to create a Russia-Africa Common Information Space. A full-scale
presentation of this project scheduled in October.
Rapidly
growing Africa is a promising market for Russian companies. "We, as
Russian Railways, see Africa as our promising market due to the fact
that Africa is developing dynamically. Today, this continent and its
countries are emerging as leaders, including in terms of social and
economic indicators. We expect Egypt to be the starting point from which
we will begin interacting with other countries. We also see some
opportunities in Tanzania. And of course, Ghana, Botswana, Morocco are
of great interest to our holding company," stressed Sergey Pavlov, First
Deputy Managing Director, Russian Railways.
"Egypt
is an African country that is also developing investment programmes. We
have important projects with the Russian Federation – the nuclear power
plant in El Dabaa, which is a huge investment of US$13 billion. Egypt
is a gateway to other African countries. We have done a lot in terms of
developing transport partnerships between our neighbours, with our
African neighbours. We are developing road projects, we are developing
construction projects, we are also developing private companies,"
according to Rania Almashat, Minister of International Cooperation of
the Arab Republic of Egypt.
Africa's
growing and emerging market needs modern technology. "Another
interesting area we want to develop in Africa is the digitalization of
agriculture, various digital platforms that we are already successfully
applying in Russia. Digital itself is useless unless it comes with
infrastructure and with applicable things. Thus, digital is simply an
accelerator for us," Dmitry Konyaev, Chairman of the Board of Directors,
UralChem.
Konyaev
suggested that, given the crucial importance of direct contacts between
African heads of state and the Russian leadership, it should be
necessary to intensify the work of all bilateral inter-governmental
commissions.
"Of
course, Africa is no exception in terms of all the global trends that
we are seeing around the world today. Mainly, it is a growing
population, urbanization, and development of new technologies. It is the
development of transport accessibility for both passengers and freight.
It is the construction of port infrastructure. In all of these aspects,
Russia certainly has all the necessary technologies and competences to
finally go back to these trade, economic and mainly social relations,"
Kirill Lipa, General Director, Transmashholding.
Economic
diplomacy, strengthening of intergovernmental commissions and increased
number of mutual visits. "After the Sochi summit, all efforts were
focused on launching export to Africa. It is not easy, because 30 years
after we left the region, we need to enter a competitive environment.
This competitive environment has already been integrated into African
life, into African legislation, and the conditions that are opening up
for Russian business today – they are not quite the same as those for
businessmen from France, the European Union, India, or China," according
to Igor Morozov, Member of the Committee for Economy Policy of the
Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
As
head of the Coordination Committee on Economic Cooperation with Africa
(AfroCom) established in 2009, Senator Igor Morozov hopes that the
e-rouble will help or encourage Russian banks to enter the African
continent after all and do their best to participate in financing
Russian-African start-ups, Russian-African trade and, of course, in
localizing Russian-African production.
Speakers
at the session believe that mutual-advancement by both African
governments and businesses could driver further cooperation between
Russia and Africa. "Investing in the private sector can unlock the full
potential of our continent and implement our plans. We are keen to
increase our cooperation with Russia for the benefit of the whole
continent," in the objective opinion of Rania Almashat, Minister of
International Cooperation of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
"Today,
the concession model primarily provides for initial and significant
input by the investor. In this situation, I think in order to help
Africa develop dynamically and rapidly, these concession models need to
be revised, more attention needs to be paid, including to security and
guarantees from the government, from the state, so that the investor
feels protected," added Sergey Pavlov, First Deputy Managing Director,
Russian Railways.
Over
these several years, Russians have been discussing and referring
to priority economic areas of cooperation in Africa. Some experts have
also been stressing the importance of getting down to implement specific
programmes and projects. Have repeatedly spoken about the systemic
efforts, with well-developed guidelines, to boost the investment into
the continent.
After
the first Russia-Africa summit held 2019, expectations are skyline high
as it offers the impetus, in the next few years, to substantially
increase investment in the economy, industry, transport,
telecommunications and tourist infrastructures, as well as in high
technology, healthcare, urban development, and other fields that are
vital to the quality of life. Africa, with its 1.3 billion population
and resources, offers great opportunities for both state, corporate
and private initiatives in investment spheres.
Due
to the coronavirus pandemic, the forum this year was held, a
combination of off-line and online format, with all epidemiological
precautions observed. The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum
(SPIEF), often dubbed the Russian Davos, is the country's main showcase
for investors, attracting political and business leaders from around the
world. The SPIEF is held annually, and since 2006 it has been held
under the patronage and with the participation of the President of the
Russian Federation.
Leave a comment
- Popular
- Rated
- Commented
04/11/2021 - 11:05:02
12/03/2023 - 22:58:08
22/01/2023 - 11:24:06
13/12/2015 - 09:27:08
01/03/2021 - 09:00:37
Opinions
30/04/2024 - 01:33:18
17/04/2024 - 22:46:39
08/03/2024 - 02:04:01
Politics
06/05/2024 - 02:52:53
02/05/2024 - 23:52:49
30/04/2024 - 01:33:18
Terror Watch
07/05/2024 - 15:08:55
05/05/2024 - 01:52:29
Press Releases
30/04/2024 - 22:03:16
18/04/2024 - 21:29:03
Russia, Africa and SPIEF'21: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities
The 24th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF'21) held on June 2-5, and under theme: "Together Again - Economy of New Reality" provided open platforms to exchange the best entrepreneurship practices and key admirable comp