OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2016. Last week, a delegation of the World Chambers Federation Executive Committee (WCF) visited Moscow. The main purpose of their stay was participating in the forum "Strengthening cooperation between WCF system and the Russian CCI" which was held in Russia for the first time. The event took place in the congress-centre of CCI of the Russian Federation. Besides during the visit, representatives of foreign chambers of commerce and industry headed by Chairman of the ICC WCF, President of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry Peter Mihok held a number of meetings with the executives of different organizations and ministries of Russia. In particular they were received by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, had fruitful discussions with leadership of Russian CCI and regional chambers. Moreover they had a chance to get acquainted not only with the Crowne Plaza Moscow WTC Hotel, where they lived during their stay in Moscow, but also with other facilities of WTC which were shown to them after the meeting with the management of the World Trade Center.

The Chairman of the World Chambers Federation Peter Mihok told the press-service of the World Trade Center about the results of the WCF’s visit to the capital of Russia revealing the most relevant issues which were discussed.

Could you tell us a few words about your meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation?

Peter Mihok: Practically we have had three important meetings during our stay here in Moscow. The first one was with the President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and representatives of several regional chambers in Russia. Now we are more familiar with the structure and the role of the regional chambers network. The real business life of companies is mostly concentrated in regions, while the Central Chamber acts as a coordinator that develops policies and appoints its representatives abroad. We understood that regions are very organized. We have also discussed arbitration, because we know that arbitration courts of chambers are very important elements. On the level of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, we cover the most important arbitration court in the world; we develop ideas on how to cooperate on national and global levels.

The other meeting - the World Chambers Federation Executive Committee closed private meeting, which was the reason we came here. We discussed a number of issues concerning the preparations for the elections in the World Chambers Federation in autumn. We shall elect the new members of the General Council, which is our supreme body. There will be twenty new members of the General Council elected in November, and Russia is one of the candidates to have its representative there. Until now, Mr. Georgy Petrov was the member of the General Council of WCF, however, due to his retirement from the position of the vice-president we were obliged to ask the President of the Russian Chamber to present a new candidate. Mr. Katyrin assured me that the successor of Mr. Petrov will be as competent and as qualified.

Besides we spoke a lot of how to organize companies in the link with the digital economy; how to prepare companies for the fourth industrial revolution, and finally about the preparation of the next World Chambers Congress in Sydney. We shall take the decision in autumn during our session in Madrid concerning the host of the Congress 2019 in Americas. We have three candidates in this region - Orlando in USA, Bogota and Rio de Janeiro in South America - and we shall pick one of them. There will be a very strong competition because all the three are very strong candidates. I am afraid that it will not be very easy to decide.

Regarding the first part of your question, I would like to underline how much we appreciated the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov, which lasted not less than 45 minutes. We discussed the evolution of the global economy, the involvement of the Russian economy in the global economy, in the global issues. We evaluated the role of Russia in the structure of ICC, however it was important to advise Minister Lavrov that it is not sufficient to be only a formal member. If Russia wants to have real effect from the memberships, it should probably be more active in certain policy issues. The role of ICC Russia is evident, taking into account the national chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce here in Russia. The chairperson of the ICC Russia is Mr. Deripaska, and we would like him to start encouraging companies to be involved and to be more active in this issue.

Moreover, we had quite serious discussions concerning the future of the global economy in the light of the sanctions. We have very clear position in the ICC concerning the liberalization of the global trade. We are big supporters of the liberal trade and from this point of view, we believe that the sanctions are very seriously damaging global trade. We should always keep in mind that on one side, we have politics – they should do the politics, while we have business – and business should not be influenced by the politics. We hope that in the near future the question of sanctions against Russia will be dealt differently, not like until now. So that is the content of these three meetings.

Do you think foreign businesses are interested in building relations with Russian business?

Peter Mihok: Let me ask you something first: what is important for business to be successful? Three of my colleagues are in Moscow for the very first time. And to be honest they are very positively impressed by the city, by the level of meeting and contacts we are having with Chambers, with the Minister, with WTC executives. And I am not saying this just to be polite. It is very important to attract people here, to show them all the opportunities that are available for doing business. Another essential issue and Mr. Lavrov agreed with the statement, is a VISA issuing system. It should be revised, especially when business travelers are concerned. The business travelers are normally very busy - they do not have time to visit consulates and embassies for three or four times to get their visas done. I am glad that Minister Lavrov promised to consider this question more carefully, because business travelers are the people that can bring new business to your country. It is not only export we are talking about, they will import Russian goods as well. And we, WCF and WTC, should facilitate the process.

Do you agree that WTC can help the World Chambers Federation develop communications between business and government being the place where such dialogue takes place?

Peter Mihok: World Chambers Federation has the network of 12 000 chambers worldwide, and from the 12 000 there are 1400 members. All of them are very authoritative members on the regional, national and transnational level. In addition to that, on the national level we have strong communication with our governments, with our political structures. We are in the capacity to deliver our position concerning different political issues.

Very important theme which I underlined during the discussion with Mr. Lavrov is the situation in Europe. Mr. Lavrov mentioned that many years ago the French president Charles de Gaulle said: “Europe from Atlantic and to the Ural”. European cooperation should be developed in this exact frame! We have the European Union, which is a very positive element in Europe as there are so many small countries and their markets are very small as well, so the creation of a single unified market was a very wise step. However, at the same time, we should respect other players on the European continent - the EU policies should be developed in the European context. According to our common view, European Union can be successful only if the whole Europe is running well and vice versa. EU needs Russia and other countries in Europe and these countries need the EU to be prosperous, because of the economic, financial and business links between the countries on the continent - the majority of our trade is done in Europe. We need strong and very successful Europe for the countries to be successful – those that are in the EU, and those that are outside of the EU.

By your opinion, what is the role of congresses and other events in building the dialogue and intercommunication between countries?

Peter Mihok: The World Chambers Congress is practically the main event we organize every two years. Our common practice is to move the event from continent to continent. Last year we had the congress in Europe – Turin, Italy. Next year the congress is planned to be held in Sydney, Asia Pacific region. This year we shall decide on the Americas. Then it will be Africa and Middle East. We naturally focus on such global topics as industrial evolution, digital economy and ways to increase the role of the chambers in the economies. Usually we have from 1,500 to 2,500 participants. Participating delegations have the opportunity to network and establish new contacts. This is a very important and a very effective form of developing reliable cooperation, because it is always based on mutual trust.

Another important and very popular element of congresses is a so-called World Chambers Competitions. Chambers from the whole world present their projects and their activities. It is a very inspiring and challenging contest. We have about 70-80 participants presenting their projects at the competition in four categories, and each category has a winner. I remember many years ago, 2002 if I am not mistaken, a chamber from Lipetsk, Russia, participated in the event. They won the competition in Montreal, Canada. Unfortunately, from that time we have not had participation from Russia. Therefore, we inspire our Russian colleagues to prepare something for the upcoming event. Once Moscow is the candidate or organizer of the congress, we can expect about 2 000 people to take part in it. What is important to mention is that those people who participate are the decision-makers, the top category people from companies, chambers or associations. I think that together the World Chambers, the Russian chambers and the World Trade Center should develop and promote this idea.