May 18 this year. a meeting of the working group on the development of investment cooperation between Russia and the countries of the Islamic world was held. The meeting was attended by deputies of the State Duma, representatives of the expert and business community. As guests of honor, the event was attended by representatives of the diplomatic missions of Bahrain and Kuwait. The initiators of the event were State Duma deputy Gadzhimurad Omarov, and the public organization “New World”.
A report at the meeting was made by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain Ahmed al-Saati, representative of the Bashkir Institute for Strategic Studies Almira Nagimova, and the chairman of the MGIMO Council of Young Diplomats Anna Grigorieva.
In his speech, Ahmed Al-Saatidal has his own assessment of Russia’s investment potential. “The Russian economy has a number of competitive advantages: favorable geographic location, reserves of resources, developed energy infrastructure and military-industrial complex … and Russian products have competitive quality and price. Having traveled the Russian regions, I was convinced of the promising opportunities of agriculture, especially in the North Caucasus … The tourist potential is also not fully disclosed. In my opinion, with the right approach, only from Islamic countries, Russia can count on an annual influx of tourists at 20-30 million. These industries are interested in Bahrain in terms of investment and economic cooperation. ”
The ambassador noted that there are no serious differences between Russia and the Islamic countries that can impede the development of economic relations. Nevertheless, there are a number of barriers hindering them. As such, Ahmed al-Saati called: the language barrier, the weak awareness of Arab investors about the activities of Russian companies, the short history of acquaintance of Arab and Russian business. It is necessary to involve additional channels of cooperation, such as the participation of Russian companies at exhibitions that are held annually in the Middle East, the building of an information presence in the region, participation in the studies of the Islamic Development Bank and other economic sites.
Almira Nagimova in her report analyzed the investment opportunities and strategies of the developed Arab monarchies. According to the expert, since 1980 their global investment portfolio has grown from 5 billion to 3 trillion dollars and covers more than 40 countries. The leaders in attracting Arab investments are traditionally the USA and the most developed countries of Western Europe. However, in the last few litas, there has been a diversification of investment flows into the countries of Asia. As for Russia, the Arab investors do not consider it as a priority country. “Since 1991, Arab investors in Russia have closed 250 deals for a total of $ 41 billion. At the same time, the leaders in terms of investment are the UAE. Arab investors prefer large investment deals in the financial, raw materials and manufacturing sectors, “the report says.
Anna Grigoryeva told about the place of Russia in the global investment market. According to the expert in 2013, Russia took the third place in the world in terms of investment, behind only China and the United States. The main foreign investors then for Russia were the countries of the West. “The dependence of Russia on Western investors and the ignoring of their Asian competitors, strengthened the effect of sanctions, as a result of which the inflow of investments fell by 90%. The investment vacuum formed after leaving a number of European companies can fill Arab investors, who are now the largest suppliers of capital to the global financial market. ” The expert also noted that at the present time the world is diversifying global investment flows. More and more investors prefer to invest not in the developed countries of the West, but in the developing countries of Asia, with its higher profitability.
In the discussion part of the meeting, the participants discussed measures to increase the investment attractiveness of Russia and its individual regions. Thus, the participants came to a unanimous opinion on the need to simplify the visa regime with countries by potential investors. One of the participants of the discussion noted that it is possible to issue a visa to Bahrain in 3 minutes, and in Russia this takes two weeks. The development of the mechanism of electronic visas, the simplification of the procedure for obtaining it, would significantly enhance the interaction with the Arab business community and become a signal to potential investors.