OREANDA-NEWS. September 3, 2012. CCI of Russia President Sergey Katyrin met with John Tsang Chun-wah, Secretary for Finance of the Hong Kong special administrative district of China, at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia.

The sides shared their views of current macroeconomic processes in Russia, Hong Kong and the world and noted, in particular, that the economies of Russia and China were passing through a rather favorable period (as John Tsang stressed, Russia has one of the lowest unemployment rates). Yet “the waiting period” on international investment markets may stretch out for rather long, and a slight decline of rates of foreign trade growth in both countries since last year is quite explicable against this backdrop. Russian economic successes of 2011 may be viewed, to a large degree, as a compensation for opportunities missed during the crisis, Sergey Katyrin believes. In turn, John Tsang said that the certain slowing of Chinese exports in 2012 resulted from the reduced demand of the European Union and the United States.

Sergey Katyrin enumerated strategic tasks of the Chamber with regard to improvement of the country’s investment climate, among them full information and other support to foreign investors and participation in the establishment of specialized financial institutes promoting investments. In the words of Sergey Katyrin, these tasks are being solved for a drastic change of the Russian position in the Doing Business international rating – a goal set by Russian President Vladimir Putin to state departments and business associations. The country has launched 23 industry roadmaps – sets of ambitious measures elaborated with the direct participation of the business community and aimed at a quality improvement of the business climate, Sergey Katyrin said. He advised Hong Kong investors to pay special attention to Siberia and the Far East.

In return, John Tsang confirmed the interest of Hong Kong investors in those regions of Russia and noted that Hong Kong did not have sufficient information about significant Russian investment projects. Hence the sides agreed to start information exchange and to assist the organization of some events, such as mutual visits of business delegations and joint exhibitions and business forums.