On November 9, 2009 the international conference “Doing business with Russia 2009” took place in Washington DC, hosted by the Russian Trade Representation and the Russian Cultural Center. The speakers discussed a number of important topics including: the current business environment in Russia, Russian-American business collaboration, and new market opportunities in Russia. Overall, the focus of the conference was on international trade opportunities and how the global economic crisis has affected business relationships between the U.S. and Russia.
Investments from the private American companies have declined since the beginning of the crisis, and strict laws along with the unpredictable political situation in Russia continues to impede the establishment of trade relations between these two countries. Andrey Dolgorukov, Trade Representative of Russian Federation to the United States commented, “Over the past twenty years, our bilateral trade relationships have experienced ups and downs, and it is no secret that often these changes were influenced by political relations.”
The afternoon portion of the conference was dedicated to Russian investors of the U.S. market. According to Mikhail Grin, President at Grand Metro Consulting, there are two groups of entrepreneurs investing in the U.S. economy. The first group represents the commodity sector, including such well-known companies as Gazprom, Lukoil and Nornickel. The second group comprises producers of consumer goods, such as meat and dairy products, chemical, engineering, consulting and wood-processing companies. These two groups differ dramatically in size, they have different profits, and entered the market at various times. However, these companies are alike when it comes to learning from American companies; they actively organize the labor structure within the company based on successful American models.
What I took away from the conference, is that the “Reset” button has been pushed between the U.S. and Russia. Despite the global economic crisis, the business relationships between the U.S. and Russia remain strong. And to make this relationship even stronger, companies can utilize Russian-speaking professionals in the U.S. Such practice will help with language barriers, cultural relevancy and overall effectiveness.
Elena Lauterbach.
Eastern European Team Lead at Allied Media Corp.
elena@allied-media.com
