The African market is competitive and complex, Russian business needs to work thoroughly and systematically in it in order to achieve success, President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Katyrin emphasized, opening a meeting with the heads of business councils for cooperation with African countries on April 6.
According to him, now Russia lives in fundamentally new economic realities, supply chains have been disrupted, many ties have been broken, logistics have been disrupted, and businesses are forced to adjust their strategies for working with foreign partners and look for new development opportunities. The logical solution, the head of the Chamber is convinced, could be the development of cooperation in friendly countries, in particular, on the African continent.
Recently, the Chamber has been receiving a lot of requests from the territorial chambers regarding the opportunities for developing trade and economic relations of small and medium-sized businesses with Africa, Sergey Katyrin emphasized. At the same time, he noted, today's Africa requires new approaches to work from business, and from the state - long-term programs to support entrepreneurship and foreign economic activity.
Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African Countries (AFROCOM), member of the Federation Council Igor Morozov spoke about the organization's work and plans. Thus, the AFROCOM website has been created, with the help of which businesses can navigate African realities, find a niche for their work, learn about the conditions for entering certain markets.
The organization opens its offices in African countries, and in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), where the headquarters of the African Union is located, a continental office of AFROCOM has been opened.
In Africa today there is a great demand for IT technologies, and this must be borne in mind. Companies can turn around there, create their own digital platforms and work successfully. There are many technology parks on the continent, for example, there are ten of them in Ethiopia alone; they offer significant benefits.
Igor Morozov noted that it is necessary to create a Russia-Africa trading house, through which Russian firms could more successfully enter African markets. We really need a specialized investment fund to support entrepreneurs. In general, if we work seriously and with the prospect of working with African partners for many years, more serious state support is needed, Igor Morozov concluded.
Sergey Katyrin summed up the results, noting that Africa is an extremely interesting and important field of activity for business, and the authorities should prepare and consolidate into one document the proposals of business councils supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.
Press Service of the Chamber
