IBS 2012

The First International Business Summit “Business in Russia: Nizhny Novgorod"

From September 27 till September 29, 2012 the first International Business Summit was held with the support of Nizhny Novgorod Region Government at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. The business summit was devoted to the topic “Business in Russia: Nizhny Novgorod”. It was focused on ensuring an efficient dialog between the business community representatives for the benefit of development of the society and country.

The participants of the International Business Summit “Business in Russia” included delegations from 15 countries, and the total number of participants exceeded 5,000 persons. In the course of it s work, 17 agreements with the capitalization of 13 billion rubleswere concluded. 6 panel discussions, 17 round-table discussions, several business dialogs with representatives of foreign companies, as well as seminars and presentations of investors were held. Over 30 companies took part in the exhibition program of the International Business Summit.

The forum was at tended by Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Mark Shmulevich, Deputy Minister of Communication and Mass Communications, Boris Titov, Commissioner for Businessmen Rights, Lev Kuznetsov, Governor of Krasnoyarsk Region, as well as the representatives of federal and regional authorities, major entrepreneurs, small and medium business leaders, investors, analysts. Information support for the event was provided by about 300 representatives of federal, regional, public affairs and business news media.

The first event of the International Business Summit was the solemn opening of cross-years of Russia and Germany. During the first day of the summit, a Press House was also opened at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair where Valery Shantsev, the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, met editors-in-chief of the federal mass media. More over, Valery Shantsev took part in signing over ten agreements between the government of the region and major investors and met Stas Misezhnikov, Minister of Tourism of Israel.

The events of the Business Summit were also held outside the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. On September 27, a presentation of the investment potential of the region was held for the delegations of foreign investor companies from the USA, Netherlands, Great Britain, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and other countriesin the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.

The business program of the second day of the summit was attended by Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government. He inspected the work of the Youth Innovation Center, the International Industrial Salon opened with in the frame work of the summit, took part in the Russian-Netherlands and Russian-Italian business dialogs, and also visited Gorky Car Plant.

The central event of the business summit was the plenary meeting “Business in Russia: Nizhny Novgorod”, with Andrey Makarov, Chairman of the Committee for bud get and taxes of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, as the moderator.

In the course of the plenary meeting, Arkady Dvorkovich drew special attention to the question about investment attractiveness of separate regions. “I don’t think that sovereign risks are the barrier which prevents from realization of certain projects in all respective cases. We see a lot of examples which testify to the fact that excellent conditions may be created on the regional level, considering the fact that sovereign climate is the same for all these points”, noted Arkady Dvorkovich. According to Vice Prime Minister, the investment attractiveness of the regionis determined by three factors: predictable actions of the administrative system, stability on the macro-level andbusiness infrastructure.

Valery Shantsev shared three aspects which, in his opinion, influence the investment attractiveness of his region most of all. “The first thing is the geographic location and the best logistics in Russia, the second thing is high competence of working and engineering personnel, and the third thing is one of the best regional legislations in Russia aimed at creation of comfortable investment field”, noted the Governor.

Making the conclusions of business summit, the head of the region noted: “The Summit was successful. Its scope surpassed our expectations: over 5,000 participants and elegations from 15 countries. The Nizhny Novgorod Region signed 17 agreements with capitalization of 13 billion rubles. There were interesting round-table discussions with participation of many young people. New fresh ideas were proposed”.

“Five thousand participants of the International Business Summitis thedriving motive of our economy. This summit was a success. It became avenue for the projects under development, which is especially important for young people. If one of ten projects is realized successfully, it will be a great success already. Many people came to hold particular negotiations, with particular projects, a lot of investments were attracted. I hope that the forum will become a tradition”, said Arkady Dvorkovich to draw the results of the summit.

Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Federation Council of Russia, highly appreciated the work of the summit. “Valery Shantsev makes a great contribution toregional development, and the International Business Summit will promote further development not only of Nizhny Novgorod Region but also of all the Russian regions”, she said in her address to the event participants.