Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Licensing in the Field of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Roman Chekushov
Photo: Julia PYKHALOVA
Roman Chekushov, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Licensing in the Field of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, told the website www.kp.ru about new opportunities for domestic business on the Southern Continent. on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa forum.
– Can African countries join free trade zones with Russia?
– On the part of the Russian Federation, we are actively promoting such an opportunity for cooperation. These are the powers of the Eurasian supranational level, because such agreements are concluded jointly with our partners, the countries of the “five” of the EAEU.
Negotiations to conclude an agreement with Egypt are in the final stage. We look forward to the early signing of this agreement, as Egypt has a large number of trade agreements with other countries. It is not only a large domestic market, but also a good entry point to the African continent. We are seeing what other free trade agreements can be concluded. We are discussing these issues on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit.
– With which African countries do you see the potential for the greatest increase in trade?
– We consider the development of commercial cooperation with the countries of North Africa a priority. These are Egypt, Algeria, Morocco. We recently opened a sales office in Ethiopia. We see good potential for trade growth with this country. Unfortunately, since Soviet times, we have significantly reduced trade with it. We need to work in this market, there are 120 million people there. Of course, South Africa is of great interest, it is the economic leader in southern Africa.
We are also developing trade relations with West Africa. I can give an example from Senegal, which is already well acquainted with Russian products: mineral, metallurgical and machine-building fertilizers. In addition to Senegal, our long-term partners are Burkina Faso, Mali, and the Central African Republic. These are the main growth points. I would not like to exclude other African partners. We are working on developing our relations with all countries.
– How could Russian products win on the African market?
– I would highlight three main aspects. There are industries where it has been proven over the years and decades that we outperform our competitors in terms of quality. For example, these are our mineral fertilizers.
The second aspect is the price. And here we have a wide range of products that are cheaper than their western counterparts, but do not suffer from any loss of quality. And finally, the third component is the service. Our companies are opening more and more distribution and service centers in Africa. In the national project “International Cooperation and Export” we have a separate support measure for the creation of such service centers. We are confident that these three components will enable us to win the competition.
– At what stage is the implementation of the project to create a Russian industrial zone in Egypt?
– The project involves the creation of several industrial buildings to house the production of Russian companies and companies from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, on the territory of the Suez Canal zone. We chose the first site. It is located south of the Suez Canal, in the city of Ain Sokhna. The site has all communications, as well as a good transport infrastructure, including a nearby railway line, which will connect this object with all parts of the country.
On March 20, during the visit of Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov to Egypt, he, as co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission, signed amendments to the intergovernmental agreement. They were also signed by Mr. Ahmed Samir Saleh, Minister of Industry of Egypt. We are waiting for the ratification of the document by the Egyptian parliament so that we can legally obtain this land. We hope that by the end of the year we will begin allocating funds to start construction.
