Diplomatic World nummer 54
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INTERVIEW WITH<br />
ARKADY ANDREEVICH ARIANOFF<br />
AND KURT DEMEYERE<br />
The Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce<br />
for Russia and Belarus (CCBLR) has been helping<br />
companies develop their business in Russia and<br />
Belarus since 1974. Arkady Arianoff (Director<br />
CCBLR Belgium and President CCBLR Moscow)<br />
and Kurt Demeyere (Vice-President CCBLR<br />
Belgium and tax lawyer with the Brussels office<br />
of Benelux law firm NautaDutilh) share their<br />
thoughts on and insight into doing business today<br />
in the Russian Federation.<br />
Arkady Arianoff: The purpose of CCBLR is to<br />
bring Belgian and Luxembourg and Russian-Belarus<br />
business partners together. We are a non-governmental<br />
organisation, free to express our views and independent<br />
of political and other influences. In Belgium, we have<br />
over 100 members and around 10 honorary members<br />
who support the CCBLR’s long-term vision. We regularly<br />
organise conferences, trade missions and other cultural<br />
and economic activities. Our biggest assets are our<br />
experience, the fact the we speak Russian, and our longstanding<br />
relationships based on mutual trust with both<br />
Belarussian/Russian and Belgian/Luxembourg officials and<br />
businesspeople.<br />
28<br />
Our best memory from the past few years is without<br />
hesitation the Belgian economic mission to Moscow and<br />
St. Petersburg in April 2011, on which occasion more<br />
than 400 Belgian businesspeople travelled to Russia in<br />
order to enhance their knowledge of the country and<br />
strengthen their ties. During the mission, several highvalue<br />
contracts between Belgian and Russian companies<br />
were signed. While due to the changed political and<br />
economic climate, participation in business missions<br />
has significantly declined in the past three years, we still<br />
see a lot of interest, in particular for the Russian regions<br />
which are increasingly profiling themselves to foreign<br />
investors. CCBLR was the first organisation in Belgium to<br />
Arkady Arianoff and Kurt Demeyere<br />
give a floor to the Russian regions to present themselves.<br />
Belgians sometimes forget that Russia is a federation, with<br />
economic decision-making power at the regional level.<br />
In the past 10 years, CCBLR has organised missions to<br />
more than 20 Russian regions in order to discover business<br />
opportunities.<br />
Recent examples include our September 2017 mission to<br />
Vologda and Tcherepovets (which focused on machinery<br />
and metallurgy), our October 2017 mission to Lipetsk<br />
(with a focus on iron and machinery), and our other 2017
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