Strengthening economic and financial ties with Russia

Foundation / Новости Фонда

“It is in the best interest of Russia and Europe to grow together, to grow our businesses sustainably, and to grow together as true partners,” Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade, Etienne Schneider, said at the third edition of the Global Russia Business Meeting under the patronage of Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker on April 22-23.

The future of financial services in Russia was one of the many topics discussed by local and international experts at this third edition of the event. The meeting was attended by the Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Igor Manylov. Around 400 decision makers attended this event, co-hosted by the trade promotion agency Luxembourg for Business.

Manylov stressed that the Russian government will adopt transparency and good governance as its defining hallmarks to address the country´s challenges effectively.

This meeting was an outstanding opportunity to strengthen economic and financial ties between the large Russia and Luxembourg, “a small country but at the very heart of Europe”, as Didier Mouget, Managing Partner of PwC put it during his speech at the conference.

“The Russian government is committed to spending billions of dollars and changing the way it does business to embrace the most successful models of innovation,” said Maxim Kiselev, Chief Development Officer of Russian Technopark Skolkovo.

Ekaterina Lazorina explained the result of this work: “A law has been adopted in order to create a centralised depositary. Another measure to make trading more efficient was the merger of the two largest stock exchanges. Furthermore, a law was adopted that would create investment funds according to the Russian legislation rules. There is also the abolition of a tax on different payment transactions in order to attract foreign asset managers”.

Etienne Schneider added that both countries as strategic partners are able to build a bridge between East and West, adding that Russia plays an ever-growing role on the world stage. Luxembourg’s goal is to underline its immense potential as a hub for Russian firms.

Veronika Shalisko, who is an Assistant Vice-Rector at the International Banking Institute in Russia, highlighted that her country wants to attract highly qualified people from abroad, but admitted at the same time that in terms of quality of life it is hard to compete with financial centres like London or New York. Another alternative is to keep valuable human capital in the country.

Timothy Beardson, the Chairman of the Albert Place Holdings in Hong Kong stressed during the roundtable that a financial centre is not successful because it is based in a large country or because it is part of a large economy. On the strategic front, a successful financial centre needs financial stability and a functioning market, which is not subject to rapid, unpredictable changes.

Source: NewEurope.eu

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