By Vestnik Kavkaza
Today President of Russia Vladimir Putin will visit Milan (Italy) to participate in Russia National Day within the framework of the Expo 2015 Universal Exposition. According to the Project Manager of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Vera Pavlova, “The visit will help to develop trade and economic relations between Russia and Italy, while Russia's participation in the Expo will have a positive impact on Russian-Italian relations.”
Speaking about the anti-Russian sanctions and the countersanctions by Russia and their affect on the development of trade and economic relations between the two countries, Vera Pavlova noted that there was a negative influence, but it was not so bad. “In the period from January to March 2015, trade between Russia and Italy declined by 26%. Certainly, this has a negative impact on many sectors of the economy, but, above all, heavy industry. Here we see some imbalance. It seems that sanctions were imposed from Russia precisely on food, but heavy industry suffers from them. Paradoxically, the turnover of agriculture has decreased by 5%, and by 40% in heavy industry,” the Project Manager of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce said.
At the same time, Vera Pavlova says that Italy continues to be the main partner of Russia among other European countries: “About 400 Italian companies work in Russia. Moreover, 20% of them have their own production. In 2014 and 2015 the cooperation in investment projects is continuing to increase. And as an example I can note the opening of a meat-processing plant in Orenburg in late 2014. About 41 million was invested in this project. Further, it should be noted that an investment project on metal-cutting equipment has been implemented by the Italian company in Nizhny Novgorod.”
Vera Pavlova believes that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that cooperation between Italy and Russia is growing. “Every day we have situations where a lot of Italian companies show their interest in the Russian market. The further development of trade and economic relations between the two countries depends on the strategy of each individual company. It reflects how one or another company risks and depends on the political situation. The lower percentage of political risk, the more opportunities Italian companies have to be in the Russian market,” she underlined.
Moreover, she added that the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce has 350 members: “Traditionally half of them are Italians, the other half are Russian companies, which work in the Italian market. Now the reduction in Russian companies is clearly noticeable, which were willing to work with Italy, and an increase in Italian companies which want to work in the Russian market. We do our best to neutralize the political aspect of Russian-Italian economic and trade relations.”
