Transformation of cooperative chains: new opportunities and prospects: Director of ACTP RF Andrey Shpilenko held a round table at SPIEF-2022

As part of the anniversary XXV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a panel discussion «Transformation of cooperative chains: new opportunities and prospects» was held, moderated by Andrey Shpilenko, Director of The Association of Clusters, Technology Parks and SEZ of Russia. 

The discussion was attended by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yuri Borisov, General Director of Transmashholding JSC Kirill Lipa, Chairman of the Board, General Director of United Shipbuilding Corporation JSC Alexei Rakhmanov, Executive Vice President, Minister of People's Power for Economics, Finance and Foreign Trade Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez Gomez, Chairman of Promsvyazbank PJSC Petr Fradkov, as well as a number of other heads of major domestic and foreign holdings and enterprises.

«In the context of overcoming the negative consequences of the sanctions policy towards the Russian Federation (in particular, the shortage of raw materials, materials and components), as well as the transformation of global value chains, a large role is given to the policy of building new economic relations with industrial enterprises from friendly countries, especially within the framework of EAEU and the Union State, - Andrei Shpilenko opened the discussion. - However, a significant part of the cooperation ties with friendly countries broken in the 1990s has not been fully restored. Moreover, against the background of the transformation of global value chains, the level of mutual cooperation between the EAEU countries in most industries has decreased over the past five years. In particular, in the production of electrical equipment, the production of machinery and equipment, metallurgy, and the chemical industry, the dynamics of mutual deliveries shows negative values. Within the framework of the round table, it is planned to discuss what steps need to be taken to intensify industrial cooperation with friendly countries, especially in industries that produce high-tech products with a high level of added value».

The participants exchanged their views on the topics of the round table and made a number of proposals. Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov focused on stimulating investments in high-tech and competitive projects and developing cooperation ties with friendly countries.

«The world economy will eventually settle down, stability will come, and many will be forced to draw conclusions. In recent years, we have been talking about globalization all the time, and Russia has confidently followed this path. Recent events have shown that globalization has side effects. There should be no discrimination. And this trend did not start in February. An attempt to isolate Russia, to de facto boycott it, what can come of it? We are the richest country in terms of natural resources, we are one of the largest suppliers of food. And now an attempt has been made to take us out of the productive chains of the world. In my opinion, this idea is a priori doomed to failure. All this boomerang hits those countries that impose these sanctions. They bought our hydrocarbons on the run, made reserves in order to live as long as possible», - Borisov said.

Yury Borisov was followed by his colleague from Venezuela, Executive Vice President, Minister of People's Power for Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez Gomez. She said that since February of this year, more than 7,000 sanctions and restrictions have been imposed on Russia, Venezuela faced similar in 2020.

«The Western world appropriates the resources of Russia, the same thing happened with the Venezuelan gold, which was confiscated by international banks. They will not be able to wipe out our countries, the largest producers of oil and gas. Russia will have other buyers of resources. Sanctions put the whole world on the brink of great danger. Russia helped us a lot during the pandemic with vaccine supplies, this is how a new world is being created. And we will stand together against countries that have no moral right to behave this way. Russia is a giant», - Gomez concluded her speech enthusiastically.

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Kirill Lipa, General Director of JSC Transmashholding, noted that the current situation in the mechanical engineering industry of the Russian Federation in the context of Western sanctions is assessed as tense, but promising.

«Despite these difficulties, the holding has the necessary resources for import substitution, in particular, there are no problems with money. For some reason, everyone asks about these conditions, these conditions have not made any changes in our lives. We had some points of growth, and these remain. So these are new markets. We were at the round table with Turkey, for example, here is the point of growth. There are projects in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. And all these are points of growth, and they have remained as they were. There was no special situation for us due to political circumstances. All as worked with us, and work. India, we are currently participating in two competitions. In Egypt, we participate in the competition. Nothing has changed», - Lipa stressed.

Aleksey Rakhmanov, Chairman of the Board, General Director of United Shipbuilding Corporation JSC, in turn, said that there are no problems with import substitution in the construction of nuclear submarines in Russia at the moment. «At the forum, USC presented a pleasure craft, which consists of 95% imported components. Let someone consider this compared to our nuclear submarines, in which there are no problems with import substitution today, a trifle, but this is a kind of demonstration of what and how we can do», - Rakhmanov said.

Also during the speech of Alexei Rakhmanov, a dispute arose - to raise one national industry «champion» or to maintain competition. The participants turned to both international experience and Russian and Soviet history. They came to the conclusion that competition is needed, but not for the sake of competition itself, two or three major players in the industry are more than enough to «spur each other on».

The discussion was summed up by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov, who noted that in a crisis situation, if you choose the path of development, you can achieve maximum results. «It is not for nothing that they say that a crisis is a window of opportunity. It must be used wisely. What is behind this success? It is necessary to have a balanced, understandable, technical, industrial policy shared by all participants in the process. It is necessary to have a financial and monetary credit system that works not for the process, but for the result. Now there is no panic, our industry is in a normal position, when, based on external factors, it should simply readjust and fully organize its production. About import substitution - let's use this term less, I like the other one - ensuring technological sovereignty. There is no need to replace everything, it’s just that the economy should be able to be independent of the whims of some next «hegemon», who considered that he was a first-class person, and everyone else should obey», - Borisov summed up.

 

Photo is the courtesy of the Roscongress Foundation.