17.03.2016 The leading Italian national daily business edition “Il Sole 24 Ore” published another interview with the President of the MCCI Italian Commission - Konstantin Krokhin, devoted to the Russian-Italian cooperation “Made with Italy” at its present stage.

In his statement Mr. Krokhin told about the Commission's role in the development of interregional cooperation, he also gave an examples of developing relations between Italian regions, such as Lombardy, Piedmont and Russian regions of Bashkortostan and Moscow. The main activity of the Commission, headed by Mr. Krokhin, is to increase cooperation and support the cultural turn in relations with Italy towards the industrial and innovative sphere. He also emphasized the importance of this work done without prejudice to the traditional areas: fashion, tourism and food.

Nowadays The New deal for Moscow is to work in phase of economic sanctions, low energy prices and unstable ruble, but with an eye to the sustainable development of the economy, that should be made primarily through the implementation of effective import substitution. And if Italian people have become accustomed to the slogan "Made with Italy" and probably to the new opportunities for Italian entrepreneurs on the Russian market, also the slogan "We’re with Italy" which was launched by the Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov, is being implemented by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce with an emphasis on interregional aspect.

As a positive example of inter-regional cooperation Mr. Krokhin cited plans for the development of direct relations between Lombardy region and Republic of Bashkortostan (the Russian picturesque region, situated between the Volga river and the Ural mountains, also known as a birthplace of Rudolf Nureyev). However, with equal importance there are still questions of cooperation in the field of petrochemistry, agriculture, health and sports in the modern agenda.

Mr. K. V. Krokhin drew attention to the fact that in the present circumstances the position of traditional competitors for Italian companies from Germany or USA, for objective reasons, has weakened. The reputation of Italian products on the Russian market is known for excellent quality and economical prices. Therefore, it was emphasized that the main objective for the Italian Commission is to let not only to large companies such as Cremonini or Ferrero, but to small and medium enterprises from the Italian regions enter the huge and promising Russian market. Because usually there are situations where they can't and don't know how to do it without knowing of Russian language.

Going back to the sanctions issue, Mr. Krokhin noted that due to the embargo on the import of off-the-shelf milk or meat products, huge part of his work is dedicated to the search of interactions with such regions as Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany for the production of food by Italian technologies in Russia. “Talking about milk, Bashkortostan is the first region in milk production. So, we already have all products could be made with fresh milk, such as: kefir, sour cream, fermented baked milk. But there are many things that are not yet produced in industrial scale. Traditionally, Russia has limited technology and quality in the production of cheese. (We have always bought it from Italy, Switzerland and Holland). So, in search of potential partners, we are turning to the world's leading producers - Turin and Milan. We do see the possibility of Italian cheese production in Russia with support in the form of tax breaks and soft loans. Using quality control technologies, Italians easily can produce new types of cheese in our country as we have cheap raw material and law labor cost. And that is just one example among many others. There is no need to do a huge investment; it's only about work, innovations and experience. Here is the way. Do not miss your opportunities on the Russian market now, sanctions will end sooner or later and you will only strengthen your positions ” 

 

To read the publication click the following link:

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/impresa-e-territori/2016-03-17/italia-russia-filo-diretto-regioni-063522.shtml?uuid=ACVthjpC