The First Russian-Israeli Business Forum took place on the 22^nd of March at the Congress Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in Moscow. Secretary General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Professor Michael Chlenov, took part in the work of the forum among other famous politicians, public figures, and diplomats from two countries.
The participants of the Forum were greeted by First Deputy Chairman of the RF Government Viktor Zubkov. During the work of the Forum, the creation of Russian-Israel and Israel-Russian business councils was announced. The councils are to provide conditions for fruitful advancement of mutually beneficial business relationships. The Russian-Israel council is headed by the Vice-President of JSC ALROSA Sergey Oulin, and the Israel-Russian council is led by the President of the Manifacturer's Association of Israel Shraga Brosh. The leaders of the newly created structure signed a Memorandum on cooperation.
Intergovernmental treaties of cooperation in industrial research and development work. The treaties were signed, respectively, from the Russian side by the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Russian Federation Viktor Khristenko, and from the Israeli side by the Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Work Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
When speaking of the results of the Forum, the EAJC Secretary General noted: “The Russian-Israeli economic relations are already twenty years old, but are unfortunately developing rather slowly. Their total volume is merely 2 billion dollars. During this time, various initiatives to intensify our relations were undertaken, in particular, the creation of Russian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But time shows that these initiatives, though good at the beginning, but they did not bring the desired results.”
Now, this is a fairly serious undertaking on a governmental level. I believe that it is a serious result that, aside from the signing of two-sided treaties, community structures were also created – business councils, the members of which are businessmen who are interested in developing two-way relationships, and which are led by eminent representatives of the business community.щества.
There has not been a structure until now that would have taken upon itself the responsibility to provide for the needs of businesses in both countries. Let us hope that the Business councils take this function upon themselves. I believe that both the Jewish segment of Russian business and the community structures – EAJC, in particular – might aid this process in certain ways.”