Indo-Russian Trade Ties Getting Better

"Russian Companies were showing renewed interest in doing business with India following the visit of President Vladimir Putin to the country in December 2014," stated Mr. Aleksander Tsybulskiy, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. He was speaking at the Business Roundtable “Russia-India: Mutual Investment Opportunities” during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) being organized in St. Petersburg, Russia.

CII has organized a CEOs delegation representing leading Indian businesses at SPIEF and at the India Russia Business Roundtable. The business delegation is being led by Mr Sumit Mazumder, President, CII. The members also participated in the B20 Turkey Regional Consultation Forum. An India Reception will also be organized coinciding with SPIEF.

Ambassador P S Raghavan, Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation highlighted the many avenues of cooperation between the two countries and spoke about the increased interest Russian companies are showing to engage with India and Indian industry. However, he was of the opinion that if the bilateral trade and business cooperation has to strengthen, it is necessary to address the issue of business visa. While this issue has been considerably addressed, issues of long term business visas still remains.

In his address, Mr. Sumit Mazumder, President, CII highlighted the need for Russian companies to participate in sectors such as nuclear energy, renewable energy, oil and gas and defense manufacturing in India. In sectors like pharmaceuticals, Mr. Mazumder felt that Indian companies could look at Russia as a production base and Russian companies in turn could take advantage of India’s R&D prowess. With infrastructure development taking centre stage in India, the CII President called upon Russian companies to invest in the opportunities presented in this sector.

The CII President also stressed on the need to fast track the India – Russia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement to boost bilateral economic cooperation.

In his address, Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII highlighted the opportunities being presented by the Make in India campaign of the Government of India. According to Mr. Banerjee, the two countries could seek to cooperate in sectors such as engineering goods, ICT, chemicals, agri-products and transport equipment among others.

Leading Indian corporates such as L&T, Exim Bank, Sun Group and Essar Group as well as Russian corporates such as Glonass, Sistema and United Aircraft Corporation highlighted their experience of working in each other’s countries.

SPIEF gathers the leading decision-makers of the emerging economic powers to identify and deliberate the key challenges facing Russia, emerging markets, and the world at large, while engaging communities to find common purpose and establish frameworks to forge solutions which will drive the growth and stability agenda.The Forum is expected to bring together over 1,600 companies, including over 840 overseas and 732 Russian companies at the forum.