Maritime Workshop in Vladivostok, 4- 7 October 2017 

The XII Fishery Congress in Vladivostok, Day 1

On 4-7 October, the Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce together with the Innovation Norway organized a maritime workshop in connection with the XII Fishery Congress in Vladivostok. The participants of the worskhop were representatives of NRCC member companies and organisations, such as the Royal Embassy of Norway in the Russian Federation, Innovation Norway, Rapp Marine, Havyard, Teknotherm Marine, Far East Fish Co., Mørenot, Mustad Autoline, Brunvoll Volda, Rolls-Royce Marine and Optimar. 

On October 4, corporate presentations of «Møre Maritime Cluster» were given exclusively at a technical seminar at the Russian Fishery.  Later on this day, the NRCC and Innovation Norway organized an open maritime seminar at the hotel Hyundai for 50 regional invited shipyards, fishing boat owners and ships design companies.

Russia Breakfast Meeting with Bernhard L. Mohr

On September 25, Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (NRCC) and Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) had a pleasure to invite their members to Russia breakfast meeting with Bernhard L. Mohr, journalist and author of the newly published book “Hvorfor stemmer russerne på Putin?”. The meeting took place at the NHO facilities.

For reference, a presidential election will be held in Russia on 18th of March. Before going into the main points of his book, Mr Mohr told the audience about himself and his background. The author explained from his point of view why russians will select Putin again, for his forth time. So, Mr Mohr mainly mentioned three causes of selecting Putin again as a president: a) he is a guarantor of their safety and stability; b) he is their only alternative; and c) Putin is a world politician.

The topic of the book is relevant today, and Mr Mohr and the audience had an interactive communication after his presentation.   

Watch video recording from the meeting (please note that only NRCC members with activated accounts on the NRCC website can access the video recording).

Russia Macro Monthly Report for September 2017: How long will the positive momentum last?

Please find Russia Macro monthly report for September 2017, prepared by Chris Weafer, Senior Partner at Macro-Advisory Ltd from Moscow. Short summary of the report:

How long will the positive momentum last?

Recovery strengthens. Rosstat reported 1H GDP growth of 1.5% and Q2 at 2.7%. The question is whether 2Q was a one-off or a new trend.

VEB disagrees with EconMin optimism. VEB’s Chief Economist publicly disagrees with the optimism from the Economy Minister and expects growth to shrink to 1.4% in the second half of this year.

Agriculture expected to pick up. The indicators are that Russia will have another record grain harvest this year and will reclaim the position of the world’s largest wheat exporter.

Confidence numbers suggest recovery has peaked. Official business confidence numbers fell from -1 to -2 in July. The PMI manufacturing index fell, indicating there is still growth, but at a slower rate.

Inflation continues to fall. Year-on-year inflation fell to 3.3% at the end of August, from 4.4% at the end of June. Food price deflation was the main driver as food inflation dropped to 2.3% YoY.

CBR cut the key rate to 8.5%. The decline in inflation allowed the CBR to make a 50-bps cut to the key rate at the 15 September policy meeting. The CBR indicated that it is likely to cut further during the next two quarters.

Rosneft is looking for asset swaps in Norway, according to Halfdan Millang, CEO of RN Nordic Oil, Rosneft's subsidiary in Norway

Macro Advisory Eurasia- Russia Consulting 

Eurasian Union, September 2017 

Steady Progress. Progress in building the trade and legislative structures within the EaEU continues on a slow but steady course.This is as expected given the experience of how long it took the EU.

Gradual trade integration. The best KPI for EaEU progress is the share of intra-EaU for each member, although this is not perfect. Here there is also steady, but slow, growth.

No immediate expansion. There is no sign of any potential new members joining the five-country union over the medium term. The relationship with Uzbekistan is growing and the 30-million people country is expected to join eventually. Moldova gained observer status, but domestic politics will stop it joining. A free trade agreement with Iran should be signed this year.

Belt and Road will make a difference. This expanding rail network means that transport links across and in/out of the region are improving and trade is becoming easier and cheaper. That may be a power driver for growth in some areas in the future. Chinese companies are more interested in investing in rail infrastructure and in other projects along the transport corridors.

Please read the full version of the article here.

Rosneft and Statoil agree to move joint development of the North-Komsomolskoye field into the next phase