Yevgeny Shashkov
Editor-in-Chief, Eurasian Metals

Yevgeny Shashkov

I

f you would like to know in advance what Russia’s next budget will be, what the prospects are for foreign investments in the Russian economy or where our foreign policy will be directed, then fly to London. At the Westminster Congress Hall or other equally impressive venues in the heart of the British capital, you will surely find the answers at some conference or symposium, where our fellow countrymen are discussing everything they know, or mostly do not know, about these vital problems.
Since the times of Gorbachev’s perestroika it has become some kind of a custom to go to London to report to vas audiences of well-intentioned democrats. And it is still a duty for every self-esteemed Russian bureaucrat, politician or businessman to be there.
I do not have the intention to criticize such types of contacts and, even more so, reproach organizers of these meetings for their venal interests (as a rule, conferences earn substantial compensation for the organizers). In my view, one should welcome any form of contacts that bring business people together. Congratulations to those foreign organizations, which from the very first years of the perestroika have been helping our industrialists establish ties in the West!
Nonetheless, the regular Russian Economic Week that took place in early April in London left the impression that our business elite was beginning to get tired of these foreign self-presentations. Apparently, it was no accident that one well-known Russian banker speaking from the podium of the Russian Economic Forum put a direct question: why are Russia’s problems are being discussed in London but not in Moscow?
About a year ago the senior staff members of the Metally Eurazii magazine raised the same question while considering plans of cooperation with London’s Metal Bulletin. Amazing! Annually Metal Bulletin holds up to 20 international conferences all over the world, which are devoted to metallurgy. By any measure each of these meetings is important and representatives of Russian metallurgical enterprises participate one way or another in almost all of them. But Russia itself remains the only country with a developed metallurgical industry that so far has not been considered an attractive place to hold such forums. Notwithstanding the fact that, besides everything else, our country is a member of the «Big Eight» and, by its status, is among states that make decisions, which are of paramount importance for the development of the world.
Today we are thankful to our British colleagues because they have finally arranged the first Moscow Summit of world steel industry leaders. British journalists became the first in the West to come to realize that it would much better to discuss Russia’s problems in Russia itself, especially so when the case in point is such an important industry as metallurgy.
On the other hand, the world metallurgy is witnessing the expansion and the increasing role of transnational corporations since precisely they embody the advanced forms of international economic relations. Russian metallurgical companies are also ready for these processes. In 2003 the aluminum company SUAL together with the British company Fleming Family and Partners set up a joint metallurgical group. The company Norilsk Nickel can also be called transnational: it accounts for 20% of the global production of nickel and for 5% of copper. With the acquisition of the American company Stillwater Mining its share of palladium production will amount to about 45%. To these should be added RUSAL that has firmly established itself in the world market.
So far only first steps have been taken on the way for Russian companies to join the international business community. The confidence of foreign investors in Russia and our major corporations is increasing. And it is happening because the Russian business is more actively switching to international standards of corporate governance and trying to attract Western managers to its companies. And not only new technologies, which we still have not fully mastered, will come along with them. A new mentality and a new business philosophy will be forthcoming.
Business means interrelation and I hope that the first Moscow Summit of Metallurgy will provide another important venue for continuing contacts between the world metallurgical community and for working out a common strategy for making Russian metallurgy transnational.
It is clear that, logically speaking, such a strategy should organically coincide with the general trends in world economy, with the pursuit of compromises between rich and poor countries. It is assumed that such summits in Russia will become regular.