The actor in Russia-Africa business cooperation who has historically been playing the leading role in matching partners is the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Its history can be traced to as far back as pre-revolutionary Russia, but the CCI as we know it now was founded in 1991.
Since then, lots of partnerships between Russian and African businesses have been established at CCI meetings. An instrumental role goes to the Business Councils (BC) hosted by the CCI. At the current time there are 10 active Business Councils with African countries: Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.
Their mission is to create comfortable conditions for the development of business activity, thereby contributing to both countries’ economies. They provide consultancy, organize business missions, forums and other events where potential partners have a chance to meet.
What makes them more valuable is that their directors know the business of bilateral business first-hand.
Russia-Nigeria
The Business Council is co-chaired by Dmitry Osipov, Chief Executive Officer of Uralkali and G. Ibru, owner of the Ikeja Hotel PLC. This Council is one of the most active ones, and it constantly reports on its work process. During the period of COVID-19 restrictions, the Council continued to work online.
Russia-Sudan
The Business Council was established in 2010, but started active work just last year, according to media. The Council is co-chaired by Victor Chemodanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MontazhEnergoStroy, and Hashim Hago Ibrahim, President of Dali&Masne Group.
Russia-Angola
The Business Council is chaired by Sergey Ivanov, President of ALROSA. Deputy chairman is Igor Skvortsov, Chairman of the Managing Board of VTB Africa.
Russia-South Africa
The Business Council is one of the oldest, established in 2006. Today it is co-chaired by Viktor Vekselberg, Chairman of Renova group, Ndaba Ntsele, Chairman of Pamodzi Investment Holdings, and Bridgette Radebe, CEO of Mmakau Mining.
Russia-Zimbabwe
The Business Council is the youngest, only established in 2018 and chaired by Dmitry Mazepin, the core shareholder and Chairman of URALCHEM.
Russia-Algeria
The Business Council was established in 2006, co-chaired by Alexander Potapov, CEO of Uralvagonzavod, and Rhiad Amour, the First Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Algeria.
Russia-Egypt
The Business Council has been active since 2004. It is co-chaired by Mikhail Orlov, President of the Ambika group, and Ms. Sahar Talaat Mostafa, the Head of the Committee on Tourism and Civil Aviation of the Egyptian Parliament. The Council consistently reports on its activities.
Russia-Libya
The Business Council was established in 2007, but since 2008 there have been no reports on its activities for 9 years. Then its chairman Ara Abramyan, President of Soglasie, informed media that the Council had been commissioned to resume all the agreements between Russia and Libya that were frozen due to the internal crisis and military actions in Libya. Now it is not very clear if the Council is active, and if it does then how exactly it assists in building Russia-Libya business cooperation.
Russia-Tunisia
The Business Council is chaired by Tatiana Sadofyeva, Director-General of Inkonnekt. This Council has launched B2B-RTBC, an online platform to facilitate contacts between Russian and Tunisian partners.
Russia-Morocco
The Business Council is co-chaired by Yury Sharov, Director General of Inter RAO Engineering, and Hasan Sentissi, president of ASMEX.We would be glad if you shared your experience of cooperation with these Business Councils and your proposals on how to enhance their performance in the comments below.