Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Overchuk addressed the B20 Regional Consultation Forum session, Moving South: Effective Development in the New World, at the 26th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Alexei Overchuk: Greetings, colleagues.
Allow me to welcome you to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
I would like to thank our colleagues from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for once again organising this Business 20 Regional Consultation Forum. This has already become a tradition here.
The Business 20 makes a sizable contribution to preparing joint decisions by the G20 on key issues of contemporary global governance. This creative work is needed today like never before.
Regarding Russia’s commitment to the G20, we are set to a constructive discussion of the fundamental reasons behind current crisis events in the global economy and finance and efficient ways to overcome them. We are doing everything to make this forum an effective and essential platform focused on the real rather than imagined socioeconomic agenda.
I would like to follow up on the ideas voiced by Mr Shokhin concerning deglobalisation and the establishment of inclusive global value chains for sustainable global trade and investment. We see today that regionalisation and corporate participation in global added-value chains open up possibilities for businesses to scale up, enter bigger markets, raise efficacy, and participate in more technologically advanced processes. If this process is organised fairly, it contributes to global economic growth. Therefore, greater involvement by developing and the least developed countries in global value chains is critical for the global economy and for our shared prosperity.
The recent experience of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fragile nature of the entire global economy. This was a force majeure. Unfortunately, apart from these external upheavals, certain countries introduce politically motivated unilateral restrictions and disrupt trade. All of us can see the consequences of these actions. Today, enterprises in many countries are suffering from higher energy and logistics costs. They are also having trouble gaining access to financial and insurance mechanisms, and all this makes it harder to obtain critically important goods in many countries.
In this context, we prioritise efforts to create more stable and resilient international value-added chains, as well as efforts to strengthen and expand ties with our reliable trade partners and friendly countries, by developing projects that can be implemented in our common interests.
On the one hand, we can see that the Russian economy has now become oriented to the east and the south. On the other hand, we need to conduct joint systemic work and completely eliminate all kinds of trade restrictions.
For this purpose, it is essential that regulatory mechanisms function with clockwork precision. There is no room for protectionism here, including green protectionism. There must be no excessive protectionist measures with regard to certain markets. Such unilateral restrictions are adopted for the benefit of certain vested interests or countries; at the same time, such measures destroy well-established long-time business ties.
Unfortunately, this is what we can see today. We are also working actively within the framework of associations that involve the Russian Federation, and we are creating networks in order to maintain and expand such ties.
It is necessary to create a stable trade and financial infrastructure, and this is what we are also doing actively. This infrastructure is aimed at helping developing countries to take part in creating high value-added products. This has critical importance for countries to develop and not just to function as raw materials appendages of more developed countries.
In fact, this is what we are doing in the EAEU. In May 2023, the heads of state formalised a highly important decision to provide financial support to industrial cooperation projects. This concerns projects that involve three or more countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. All of us will create cooperation ties that will allow us to jointly develop high-tech goods. We are working actively on this in our home region, and we have determined sources of funding. Now that the heads of state have signed all documents, we hope that the mechanism will start operating already in 2024.
Regarding the financial infrastructure, we are using a system for confirming financial reports of the Russian Central Bank very effectively. This past spring, Russian rouble payments accounted for 90 percent of trans-border settlements. The system that we are building in our home region has already become sufficiently stable.
In a broader context, the lack of a stable and equal access to trade financing and the best technologies hampers corporate and state development.
Opinion exchanges inside multilateral associations can help build such a system. The Business 20 and its outreach formats can play a very substantial role here.
This collaboration is particularly important in the sphere of launching online document exchanges between countries and using digital platforms that make it easier for companies to take part in value-added production chains.
This year, the Indian chairmanship launched a new outreach format called Startup20, focusing on incentives for the development of small technological companies from the G20 countries.
The Russian Federation regards this as yet another important area for cooperation with the business community. Specifically, supporting small technology companies is a key priority under the Concept of Technological Development until 2030. This comprehensive document ties in all that is being done in this country to develop science and human potential and create favourable conditions for business growth.
Today, Startup20 is just getting into high gear. We believe that in the future this format and the Business 20 (B20) may generate an interesting synergy that will lead to practical results.
I would like to say a few words about regional integration as well. Of much interest in this regard are the B20 recommendations on involving participants who require special support in international cooperation, such as the least developed countries, small and medium-sized businesses, women, and young people. We support the work done by the B20 in Africa.
Global collaboration must certainly be complemented with the regional integration level. In this connection, the Government of the Russian Federation prioritises development of integration cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union, which Russia chairs in 2023, along with promoting cooperation within the B20, BRICS, the SCO, and APEC.
We believe it is important to synchronise the agendas of the B20 and the regional platforms with Russian participation and enable our partners who are not represented there to access their capabilities. A crucial role in this respect belongs to the principles of inclusiveness, rationality, and comprehensiveness. These are the principles of Russia’s policy, which it abides by at all multilateral platforms and in relations with all its partners.
We proceed from the premise that the Russian business community’s B20 effort is aimed at finding promising development opportunities in the new geopolitical environment. The Russian business circles promote the ideas of restricting the monopoly of the dollar and expanding the use of national payment systems, ideas that are highly relevant in the eyes of our partners from among a broad range of countries. They also call for an exchange of experience and best practices in the area of artificial intelligence and digital economy. The agenda also includes a discussion on global logistics chains resistant to political vacillations, transport corridors, insurance and banking products, and rating mechanisms.
We suggest that the Russian participants step up this work at the B20, based on collaboration with friendly partners and proceeding from the need to strengthen the positions of developing countries in this format.
This forum offers good opportunities for implementing the ideas that have moved to the fore. Moreover, no one doubts that they need to be put into practice.
Thank you.
