ВестникЕФЭ-1-2020-eng 26.02.2020 16:42 Страница 52
Special opinion
PROSPECTS OF THE EU-EAEU DIALOGUE AND RUSSIA’S ROLE IN THE PROCESS THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE EURASIAN FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC HERALD ASKED A FEW QUESTIONS TO THE CEO OF THE ASSOCIATION OF EUROPEAN BUSINESS DR. FRANK SCHAUFF
– What was the sentiment of the Association members going into 2020? – 2020 is a major landmark for the AEB as we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Association this year. The anniversary year encourages us to set the most ambitious goals, such as conducting several large-scale events involving representatives of the European Commission, Business Europe, Russian cabinet ministers and prominent business actors. The main event will take place in Moscow in October. Events will also take place in Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar, Kazan and Yekaterinburg during the year. The annual Northern Dimension Forum will be in Saint Petersburg. This year the Forum will focus on CONNECTIVITY. NOW—boosting flows of people, information, energy, goods and services. We have every reason to be proud of what our Association has achieved in these years. We have transformed from a small business club into the main representative body of foreign businesses in Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Since 1995, we have been promoting foreign investors' interests in Russia and shaping the business and investment environment together with the Russian and Eurasian government agencies. We will be happy to continue acting as intermediaries in this productive dialogue with the new Russian government. – Tell us a little about what 2019 was like for the European businesses – In 2019, the economic cooperation between Russian and the EU remained in-
52
tensive despite a complicated economic and geopolitical situation. On the one hand, in terms of the investment climate, the remaining political tension creates continued pressure on direct foreign investments which make up 0.2% of GDP in Russia, the lowest among emerging markets. On the other hand, we observe relatively high mutual demand of the Russian and European business communities for developing trade relations. According to the annual study Strategies and Prospects for European Companies in Russia conducted by the AEB and GFK Rus in March – April 2019, the AEB member companies have sufficient confidence in Russia's economic capabilities: 45% of the AEB member companies are expecting the Russian economy to grow in the short term. The mid- and long-term forecasts are more positive: 66% of the companies are expecting economic growth in the next 3–5 years, and 80%, in the next 6–10 years; 17% of the companies are expecting increased investments in their production in the next 2–3 years; 28% are expecting investment growth in Russia in general. European businesses are closely following the work on the Investment Code. It will create a framework of investment regimes to make the legal regulation predictable and the investment conditions more consistent, while encouraging investments. Considering the general trend for capital outflow from emerging markets, the ambiguities in the investment area clearly do not benefit the Russian economy. Consequently, a stable legal framework is virtually the
key determining factor in further investment. Another important initiative according to the business is the revision and abolition of obsolete and contradictory regulations, especially those from the Soviet period,—the so called 'regulatory guillotine'. Meanwhile, last year also raised a lot of concerns for European companies. The initiative to extend the responsibility of producers and importers for their waste that not only prevents the companies from using their own resources for waste disposal, but also obliges them to pay a new tax, produced mixed reactions. Although this draft law is still under development, European producers that have already invested big money in their own disposal infrastructure are looking at the possible scenarios with trepidation. The work on defining the requirements for mandatory labelling of goods will continue in 2020. In 2019, the AEB held extensive discussions about the technical support for this process with the representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Centre for Development of Promising Technologies, first of all on implementing the Track and Trace System. We hope that the Association of European Businesses will act not only as a bridge between the Russian and European business communities in this respect but will remain a reliable communication channel between the European Union on the one hand and Russian and Eurasian authorities on the other hand. Over the entire last year, we have sup-