Europe’s economy needs now Russia's trade growing with Africa

In this interview, Alisa Prokhorova, Managing Director for International Activities and Interaction with Business Councils, and Group of companies of the Russian Export Center o ers in-depth information and statistics about Russia's trade with Africa.

Russia, set the grounds for raising trade collaboration across various areas and work towards a new dynamism in the existing economic cooperation with African countries.

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

In our conversation, Prokhorova stressed that as the African continent undergoes positive transformation, platforms for dialogue on trade between Russia and Africa are emerging too. She refers to the newly created continental free trade zone in Africa for potential Russian investors and enterprises, facilitating their quest for interaction with industry organisations in sub-Saharan African countries.

Here are the interview excerpts:

Question: Is the African market promising from an economic point of view? What are the prospects of Russia playing a unique role on the African continent?

Answer: What is the peculiarity of the African continent? The demand is very high (a large territory of the continent, 54 countries), but many countries are not creditworthy. Large corporations plan a strategy to enter the market with a deferred e ect. So, they invest. For example, China which enters many African countries takes signi - cant projects but implements them at its own expense because it is challenging to achieve high demand from the African population.

Russian companies do not have enough resources to engage in such investment expansion. The market is potentially the largest, Africa - is the continent of the future, but at the moment, the demand is generally limited.

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