The first meeting of the Russian-Italian Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship  of  the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development  was  held  in State Duma on March 17, 2015. The theme of the meeting  was "Small and medium business in Russia and Italy: current state and prospects of cooperation."

The meeting was attended  by Igor Rudenskiy, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development; Mamikon Hayrapetyan, advisor to the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development; Filippo Gotti Lee, director of GIM-UNIMPRESA - the Association of Italian Entrepreneurs in Russia; Konstantin Krokhin, Chairman of the MCCI Commission on international trade cooperation with partners in Italian Republic; Valerio Piacentini, Professor of "Corporate and Business Law" Bocconi University and others.

Konstantin Krokhin pointed out the unique opportunities for collaboration between Italian and Russian companies. Italy has a broad technological competence in many industries, and Russia needs to restore its own industrial and agricultural production, a large-scale import substitution program in mechanical engineering, medical industry, agriculture. Mr. Krokhin  mentioned positive historical experience of solving such large-scale problems together with Italian partners (creation of modern AvtoVAZ production in Togliatti, development  of petro-chemical plants in Bashkiria  and Tatarstan during the Soviet era). Mr. Krokhin proposed to move from a "MADE in ITALY" to "MADE with ITALY", the  principle of  deep collaboration and cooperation.

 

At the meeting it was decided to prepare a joint Russian-Italian Program of development of small and medium-sized businesses in 2015-2016.

 

The program must be presented at the next meeting of the Russian-Italian Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development, to be held in Milan June 10, 2015 (the day  of Russia at Expo - Milan).