the government of the Russian Federation, the government of Germany and the European Union have begun the implementation of a number of comprehensive measures partly mythic proportions in order to mitigate the economic consequences. In Germany was approved the most extensive in the history of the Federal Republic of support package. It includes loans, guarantees and direct subsidies to enterprises, regardless of their scope of activities and number of employees. At the same time, the crisis will also be the priority theme of the German presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2020.
large-Scale and diverse support measures of the EU will benefit and German companies in recent years and decades have placed their investments in Russia. Only in 2019, the volume of direct investments from Germany to Russia amounted to 2.6 billion euros. While investors represent the entire spectrum of the German economy, as an example, I’ll mention just in car industry, pharmaceuticals, engineering and energy.
Many working in Russia, German companies are not only important employers and taxpayers, but also significantly contribute to the practical technology transfer. Nevertheless, it is important to provide just to foreign investors, the long-standing in Russia, equal access to local forms of support at the Federal and regional levels. It is not discrimination to require honesty and good treatment of enterprises that have made a choice in favor of business localization in Russia.
Another aspect which we should pay attention to the travel restrictions imposed to combat the threat of infection, has led to the fact that a number of managers from Germany and other European countries, whose presence is vital for administering the Affairs of the companies in Russia at the moment can not enter the territory of the country. The Russian-German chamber of Commerce and the Eastern Committee of German economy, together with the Association of European businesses and other organizations-partners from Italy, France and Austria have already presented the Russian authorities with specific proposals on the exclusive procedure for obtaining permission to enter. Together with them we also, being local representatives of European diplomacy, advocate for better conditions.
Despite all the challenges, we need to look primarily to the future: perhaps, very useful to have the Year of Germany in Russia, which will begin later this summer and we are planning to use as a joint platform for that after caused by the coronavirus forced pause again to give our relationship the impulses and dynamics, particularly in the economic sphere.
For all of us, including for the company��iy, this Year will be a good opportunity for the whole of Russia together are visible Germany’s role in public life and above all to achieve development in future-oriented issues. Also the coming of the German-Russian thematic Year of economy and sustainable development, scheduled to start towards the end of the calendar year, will be a source of remarkable points of contact for participants from Germany and Russia a new promising ideas and projects.
Let’s work together on that, despite the impact of a pandemic – no, precisely because of their presence, with new ideas to move forward in our broad-based Foundation relations.
