How can Russia’s business and investment climate be improved?


rick 30 September, 2008, 00:35	Russia should rebuild its economy to be the strongest in the world and it would be good to start with the car industry russia is awash with its own supply of energy so doesent have to rely on other countries to supply these. A good tip is for building good cars is to copy only the best of what you see. save on research and development costs by taking toyota mercedes and stripping them down slightly changing them and give them a russian identity and you have a world class car industry. It has been hard for some socialist countries to adopt capitalism but lets face facts the worlds richest countries are capitalist democracies, its true that some countries are in recession at moment but this is just a temprary blip, caused mainly by falling property prices - we all need to live in houses they are completely necessary like oil they will go up in the long time because we cannot exist without them and their long term is assured because theres no commodity that can replace them. there is also the long term capital problem of the rich /poor gap widening i sugggest we address this by having the top executive earning no more than 30 times what he would be willing to pay his lowest employee this would ensure the rich poor gap would not widen but keep the economy stable. next lets invest in education and build the worlds best universities and educate people on the school curriculum from enterprise good citizen ship, instilling a good work ethic and the importance of clean living, and a healthy lifestyle. lets build better relationships with other countries and lets not go back to the cold war days rather than make an enemy of china lets co operate together and patent engineering skills rather than a cold war. lets put men who are soldiers they are nothing more than paid killers give them jobs that are useful and helpful to society, let them build power stations pipelines dig roads for fast fibreoptic broadband, build universities, build large scale supermarkets, utilise their labour forces for a better return of tax money. make prisoners labour sold out to private companies at rates that compete with china and long term prisoners can be trained and shown some high tech ways of manufacturing and a way to gain new skills and start fresh lives on their release. let us not fall into the ways of the state social security system where it becomes a burden for the people with handouts to those who are too lazy too work like half of the united kingdom, make families publicly declare their input to the tax system where familys are a constant drain on the state through bad parenting bad education split the family up and evaluate a solution wherby they can learn to become stakeholders in society and contribute both tax and a valued members of society. encourage inovation, international competition and exchange of ideas,pool your countries interlectual capital to be utilised on a world exchange (a bit like the internet without computors). encourage radical thinking and have a guest pool of government ideas from all walks of society saying how it should evolve. give people the means to have good sized homes and healthy kids free of disease and an abundace of cheap energy clean water make it a prority for people to pass on good knowlege of skills through teaching and voluntary, give retired people the chance to foster good relationships with youth and make the government invest more heavily in leisuretime investments when people are happy they are spending money. it puzzles me greatly why russia is so far behind other countries in its economy health and quality of life for its people its bad government no insight , the russian government must up its game and do more for its people to deliver a better quality of life for its people and a better international partner for the world. if you would like to comment or contact me in the united kingdom my email is rikkk@fsmail.net permalink quote 0 rick
Eric 30 September, 2008, 22:58	Russia has mindblowing potential as a world wide commodities supplier. The logical next step is the development of a well regulated and professionally operated commodities market. Realise that commodities trading is a zero sum game. for every win there is an equivalent loss. Commodities can be highly leveraged but they cannot be seen as capital growth and will not achieve economies of scale on their own. However, commodities markets can reduce producer risk and allow consumers the opportunity to hedge future expenses. A commodities market would likely require careful legislation for the writing, sale, purchase and trading of futures but it can be done. permalink quote 0 Eric
fred (the other) 1 October, 2008, 08:35	@eric : a FUTURES market ??? what for ? Russia becoming the new temples of speculation ? (hint : what is a good speculator ? A: a dead one !) no need for big-band theories . yes , trading raw materials is pointless . better refine them THEN selling them .! but that won't improve climate , only final holders of profits , nothing for climate . i think that if Russians could start with more simple things : * don't be ashamed to be Russian * don't be too proud either . * find qualities in russians product , if no quality found , then ask yourself "WHY can't we do the same?" (being partly french help me on this ! why frenchs foods products are good = because frenchs are VERY demanding ! look at UK foods in comparison : whatever is nourishing is good enough , while frenchs want to be nourished AND enjoy at the same time !!) all of this being related with standards , how you set them , how to reach them . * understand that the best way of loosing yourself is to copy some others . (how many times in Russia i heard "I am not a stupid Russian , i have things !" = this is already an effect of consumerism ! since WHEN having belonging is a proof of any form of cleverness ??? Russians are NOT Americans , they shouldn't react this way .!) * be attractive ! how many times i arrived in Russia with the fear of being "shot by the eyes" of the immigration officer . in a more general way : Learn how to smile in a natural way , to be looking nice (not about fashion or clothes)and inviting ,not for the profit , not to make anything out of it , only for the sake of being nice . when entering a shop,office,bank , etc. in Russia , now i have a trick = if they smile and are polite = it is going to cost a lot !! or look at Russian TV : the perfect example is the woman presenting the news on "RTR planeta " sometime . she has tight brownish hair , blue eyes , she looks absolutely amazing (sorry don't know the name). but she hardly smile or show emotion ! i am quite sure that with a few smile or friendly attitude , lots of peoples worldwide would learn Russian just to drink her words . all of this related with the idea of "power" russians seems to have in mind (the powerful ones are the ones with strong temper , the smiling ones are either weak or stupid ) on this , and with RT , Aleksandra Kosharnitskaya is probably the one i like the most . sight more than agreable , charisma , humanly attitude , cleverness naturally shining around ,shown ability to treat complex and difficult subjects , etc . (even if she is blond ! and don't worry i am not going to ask her to be my wife ! ;-)))) the second best ones : Sophie Shevardnadze (but a bit uptight )Anissa Naouai (but would need an atom more of friendly smile .) and Aleksandr Gurnov = excellent (but already a bit too man for me .;-) ) all of this to say : success and happiness is very often more a question of "way of mind" . (the little extra that make a world of difference) no one need to have specific actions to be better or more successful or . just be yourself , enjoy what you are doing , enjoy doing it for your country , intelligent peoples will ultimately see it ! permalink quote 0 fred (the other)
Vijay Singh 1 October, 2008, 10:35	Russian business has an age-old potential that has not been fulfilled historically due to various reasons - Political Administrative. Geographical etc Improvements can only go hand in hand with improvements in the legal status and the risks involved. The country today has enormous potential potentially, the trick to transform that into actuality is to assure and reassure potential and probable investors into believing that Russia is both promising as well as profit bearing.W/O the pitfalls bedeviling investors everywhere else.especially in the so-called 'Developed' world.! The Economic pole is shifting rapidly.no reason for Russia and Russians not to bask in it?! permalink quote 0 Vijay Singh
ROBERT U.S. 2 October, 2008, 05:23	Learn from the U.S. mistakes. The worse thing you do in business is ripoff your customers.This is why U.S.is in the biggest trouble. The banker ripoff there clients and now they want the tax payer to bail them out.I couldn't tell you how angry people really are.There so angry they don't even want to talk about it.To add insult to injury there going to eliminate ATM tax. It has nothing to do with ATM machine either. Tax relief for the rich.I have a feeling that there is going to be serious repercussions because of the bailout about 5 years from now. I couldn't tell how angry people are on this bailout, there breaking thing and beatting on thing WOW. permalink quote 0 ROBERT U.S.
fred (the other) 2 October, 2008, 06:14	in the list i made yesterday , i forgot one VERY important item : Russia AND Russians should fight with the latest energy the hypocrisy of the western medias and Govt .! NO! Russia isn't a place where one can expect anything (mostly bad) to happen ! (VERY strict respect of the law ! whether a Billionaire or a simple RU citizen or someone from anywhere on earth , do by the book ! nothing but the book (of laws)!everybody then would know that the rules are written AND to be respected ! ) No! Russians shouldn't come with the excuse "it has always been like that and will remain the same ." if nothing is set for a possible change = only one solution : commit suicide ! or come up WITH the WILL of changing things for a better . if not for oneself , at least for the next generations . permalink quote 0 fred (the other)
David 3 October, 2008, 16:46	Whilst concentrating on its oil and gas wealth Russia needs to concentrate on food wealth in order to feed the world. Food is more important than oil - without food (including water) we will not survive permalink quote 0 David
Guy 8 October, 2008, 23:10	To improve Russia's business and investment cliamte is to lower taxes on businesses, especially small businesses. This will help give businesses the capital to grow and invest in raw materials and also hire more people. permalink quote 0 Guy
Enrique 9 October, 2008, 12:06	Guy, Russian taxes are already very low compared to Western Europe or Brazil, for example. permalink quote 0 Enrique
fred 10 October, 2008, 15:29	Enrique : chut . not so loud .! they would say "it is abnormal !" a bit the same way that the two candidates running for presidential . one say "i will buy all nasty credits from the ones who cannot pay anymore ." Answer : ah , yes ? with what money ? the other one say " i will lower the tax by some 95%" Answer : ah , yes ? who's gonna pay pay for the huge (not huge , enormously HUGE) debts of the nation ? which by the way IS the REASON why the first cannot do what he said . so please Enrique , not so loud .! they would declare that having such low-tax is a Weapon of mass-destruction .!;-)) permalink quote 0 fred
Enrique 11 October, 2008, 06:12	The famous Russian "oligarchs" are not a natural consequence of the Market economy but a political strategy by Boris Yeltsin to build "capitalists" or "robber barons" in Russia as a new capitalist elite. From the age of those oligarchs (compare that billionaires in the rest of the World who built their own Corporations after decades) it is evident what the Kremlin did was just giving National Soviet Corporations worth billions to some MBA (Master in Business Administration) for FREE. So Russian companies worth billions of Euros, with an infraestructure which did cost decades to build and was payed by the Russian citizens.were given for free to a bunch of young Administrators just to make the fiction that the Russian Federation had big Capitalist businessmen like the U.S. or Western Europe. The truth is that it was just a robbery to the Russian citizen and nowhere in the World something like that has happened. Abramovich at least gave back an small part of the present given to him for free, spending over a billion USD in Chukotka, but in the present economic situation something more has to be done by those oligarchs giving back several billions to the Russian Financial System or to Russian infraestructure. The Yeltsin, or Yavlinsky, idea to give a bunch of young MBAs whole National Companies worth billions of euros was completely ridiculous and stupid, and more now that some of them have a sense of property over the present from the Russian Government and think they shouldn´t give anything back so they are helping other nations like the UK with Russian money instead of helping the Russian Federation. permalink quote 0 Enrique
Soar 13 October, 2008, 15:26	I advise medium sized businesses about investing in Russia. The first thing necessary to improve the business climate is to make it possible to travel within the country. It is impossible to buy an airline ticket to major conurbations with over a million people unless you turn up at the ticket desk at the airport. It is possible to buy railway tickets over the internet but Express Delviery abroad costs more than the ticket. Many single city airlines do not accept credit cards, even in their home towns. Staying in an hotel for a few days is fine. However, if you need to stay more than a week or so an apartment is more cost effective, flexible and homely. However, unless one has exactly the right invitation from an organisation in that city it is impossible. (The first time investor doing preliminary research will not have such an invitation - maybe not for several visits). At the least this is a formula for trapping all investment in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ekatrinburg gets some UK attention and Samara gets some German attention due to direct flights but this is hardly the whole of Russia. Step 1 Reduce the bureacratic barriers to simple access. Step 2 Internationalise the ability to purchase airline and railway tickets. Complicated stuff about taxes, the byzantine process to set up a company, security of property, corruption, non commercial competitive responses (bullets left in reception), use of zero tolerance administrative measures come later. permalink quote 0 Soar
Johnny 6 November, 2008, 18:14	Russia, all I can say is that with this economic crisis, you should in theory be attracting wealthy companies like Intel, hundreds of companies. I think you should set up a special department for large business, at least! This dept permalink quote 0 Johnny

rick 30 September, 2008, 00:35

Russia should rebuild its economy to be the strongest in the world and it would be good to start with the car industry russia is awash with its own supply of energy so doesent have to rely on other countries to supply these. A good tip is for building good cars is to copy only the best of what you see. save on research and development costs by taking toyota mercedes and stripping them down slightly changing them and give them a russian identity and you have a world class car industry. It has been hard for some socialist countries to adopt capitalism but lets face facts the worlds richest countries are capitalist democracies, its true that some countries are in recession at moment but this is just a temprary blip, caused mainly by falling property prices - we all need to live in houses they are completely necessary like oil they will go up in the long time because we cannot exist without them and their long term is assured because theres no commodity that can replace them. there is also the long term capital problem of the rich /poor gap widening i sugggest we address this by having the top executive earning no more than 30 times what he would be willing to pay his lowest employee this would ensure the rich poor gap would not widen but keep the economy stable. next lets invest in education and build the worlds best universities and educate people on the school curriculum from enterprise good citizen ship, instilling a good work ethic and the importance of clean living, and a healthy lifestyle. lets build better relationships with other countries and lets not go back to the cold war days rather than make an enemy of china lets co operate together and patent engineering skills rather than a cold war. lets put men who are soldiers they are nothing more than paid killers give them jobs that are useful and helpful to society, let them build power stations pipelines dig roads for fast fibreoptic broadband, build universities, build large scale supermarkets, utilise their labour forces for a better return of tax money. make prisoners labour sold out to private companies at rates that compete with china and long term prisoners can be trained and shown some high tech ways of manufacturing and a way to gain new skills and start fresh lives on their release. let us not fall into the ways of the state social security system where it becomes a burden for the people with handouts to those who are too lazy too work like half of the united kingdom, make families publicly declare their input to the tax system where familys are a constant drain on the state through bad parenting bad education split the family up and evaluate a solution wherby they can learn to become stakeholders in society and contribute both tax and a valued members of society. encourage inovation, international competition and exchange of ideas,pool your countries interlectual capital to be utilised on a world exchange (a bit like the internet without computors). encourage radical thinking and have a guest pool of government ideas from all walks of society saying how it should evolve. give people the means to have good sized homes and healthy kids free of disease and an abundace of cheap energy clean water make it a prority for people to pass on good knowlege of skills through teaching and voluntary, give retired people the chance to foster good relationships with youth and make the government invest more heavily in leisuretime investments when people are happy they are spending money. it puzzles me greatly why russia is so far behind other countries in its economy health and quality of life for its people its bad government no insight , the russian government must up its game and do more for its people to deliver a better quality of life for its people and a better international partner for the world. if you would like to comment or contact me in the united kingdom my email is rikkk@fsmail.net

permalink quote rick

Eric 30 September, 2008, 22:58

Russia has mindblowing potential as a world wide commodities supplier. The logical next step is the development of a well regulated and professionally operated commodities market. Realise that commodities trading is a zero sum game. for every win there is an equivalent loss. Commodities can be highly leveraged but they cannot be seen as capital growth and will not achieve economies of scale on their own. However, commodities markets can reduce producer risk and allow consumers the opportunity to hedge future expenses. A commodities market would likely require careful legislation for the writing, sale, purchase and trading of futures but it can be done.

permalink quote Eric

fred (the other) 1 October, 2008, 08:35

@eric : a FUTURES market ??? what for ? Russia becoming the new temples of speculation ? (hint : what is a good speculator ? A: a dead one !) no need for big-band theories . yes , trading raw materials is pointless . better refine them THEN selling them .! but that won't improve climate , only final holders of profits , nothing for climate . i think that if Russians could start with more simple things : * don't be ashamed to be Russian * don't be too proud either . * find qualities in russians product , if no quality found , then ask yourself "WHY can't we do the same?" (being partly french help me on this ! why frenchs foods products are good = because frenchs are VERY demanding ! look at UK foods in comparison : whatever is nourishing is good enough , while frenchs want to be nourished AND enjoy at the same time !!) all of this being related with standards , how you set them , how to reach them . * understand that the best way of loosing yourself is to copy some others . (how many times in Russia i heard "I am not a stupid Russian , i have things !" = this is already an effect of consumerism ! since WHEN having belonging is a proof of any form of cleverness ??? Russians are NOT Americans , they shouldn't react this way .!) * be attractive ! how many times i arrived in Russia with the fear of being "shot by the eyes" of the immigration officer . in a more general way : Learn how to smile in a natural way , to be looking nice (not about fashion or clothes)and inviting ,not for the profit , not to make anything out of it , only for the sake of being nice . when entering a shop,office,bank , etc. in Russia , now i have a trick = if they smile and are polite = it is going to cost a lot !! or look at Russian TV : the perfect example is the woman presenting the news on "RTR planeta " sometime . she has tight brownish hair , blue eyes , she looks absolutely amazing (sorry don't know the name). but she hardly smile or show emotion ! i am quite sure that with a few smile or friendly attitude , lots of peoples worldwide would learn Russian just to drink her words . all of this related with the idea of "power" russians seems to have in mind (the powerful ones are the ones with strong temper , the smiling ones are either weak or stupid ) on this , and with RT , Aleksandra Kosharnitskaya is probably the one i like the most . sight more than agreable , charisma , humanly attitude , cleverness naturally shining around ,shown ability to treat complex and difficult subjects , etc . (even if she is blond ! and don't worry i am not going to ask her to be my wife ! ;-)))) the second best ones : Sophie Shevardnadze (but a bit uptight )Anissa Naouai (but would need an atom more of friendly smile .) and Aleksandr Gurnov = excellent (but already a bit too man for me .;-) ) all of this to say : success and happiness is very often more a question of "way of mind" . (the little extra that make a world of difference) no one need to have specific actions to be better or more successful or . just be yourself , enjoy what you are doing , enjoy doing it for your country , intelligent peoples will ultimately see it !

permalink quote fred (the other)

Vijay Singh 1 October, 2008, 10:35

Russian business has an age-old potential that has not been fulfilled historically due to various reasons - Political Administrative. Geographical etc Improvements can only go hand in hand with improvements in the legal status and the risks involved. The country today has enormous potential potentially, the trick to transform that into actuality is to assure and reassure potential and probable investors into believing that Russia is both promising as well as profit bearing.W/O the pitfalls bedeviling investors everywhere else.especially in the so-called 'Developed' world.! The Economic pole is shifting rapidly.no reason for Russia and Russians not to bask in it?!

permalink quote Vijay Singh

ROBERT U.S. 2 October, 2008, 05:23

Learn from the U.S. mistakes. The worse thing you do in business is ripoff your customers.This is why U.S.is in the biggest trouble. The banker ripoff there clients and now they want the tax payer to bail them out.I couldn't tell you how angry people really are.There so angry they don't even want to talk about it.To add insult to injury there going to eliminate ATM tax. It has nothing to do with ATM machine either. Tax relief for the rich.I have a feeling that there is going to be serious repercussions because of the bailout about 5 years from now. I couldn't tell how angry people are on this bailout, there breaking thing and beatting on thing WOW.

permalink quote ROBERT U.S.

fred (the other) 2 October, 2008, 06:14

in the list i made yesterday , i forgot one VERY important item : Russia AND Russians should fight with the latest energy the hypocrisy of the western medias and Govt .! NO! Russia isn't a place where one can expect anything (mostly bad) to happen ! (VERY strict respect of the law ! whether a Billionaire or a simple RU citizen or someone from anywhere on earth , do by the book ! nothing but the book (of laws)!everybody then would know that the rules are written AND to be respected ! ) No! Russians shouldn't come with the excuse "it has always been like that and will remain the same ." if nothing is set for a possible change = only one solution : commit suicide ! or come up WITH the WILL of changing things for a better . if not for oneself , at least for the next generations .

permalink quote fred (the other)

David 3 October, 2008, 16:46

Whilst concentrating on its oil and gas wealth Russia needs to concentrate on food wealth in order to feed the world. Food is more important than oil - without food (including water) we will not survive

permalink quote David

Guy 8 October, 2008, 23:10

To improve Russia's business and investment cliamte is to lower taxes on businesses, especially small businesses. This will help give businesses the capital to grow and invest in raw materials and also hire more people.

permalink quote Guy

Enrique 9 October, 2008, 12:06

Guy, Russian taxes are already very low compared to Western Europe or Brazil, for example.

permalink quote Enrique

fred 10 October, 2008, 15:29

Enrique : chut . not so loud .! they would say "it is abnormal !" a bit the same way that the two candidates running for presidential . one say "i will buy all nasty credits from the ones who cannot pay anymore ." Answer : ah , yes ? with what money ? the other one say " i will lower the tax by some 95%" Answer : ah , yes ? who's gonna pay pay for the huge (not huge , enormously HUGE) debts of the nation ? which by the way IS the REASON why the first cannot do what he said . so please Enrique , not so loud .! they would declare that having such low-tax is a Weapon of mass-destruction .!;-))

permalink quote fred

Enrique 11 October, 2008, 06:12

The famous Russian "oligarchs" are not a natural consequence of the Market economy but a political strategy by Boris Yeltsin to build "capitalists" or "robber barons" in Russia as a new capitalist elite. From the age of those oligarchs (compare that billionaires in the rest of the World who built their own Corporations after decades) it is evident what the Kremlin did was just giving National Soviet Corporations worth billions to some MBA (Master in Business Administration) for FREE. So Russian companies worth billions of Euros, with an infraestructure which did cost decades to build and was payed by the Russian citizens.were given for free to a bunch of young Administrators just to make the fiction that the Russian Federation had big Capitalist businessmen like the U.S. or Western Europe. The truth is that it was just a robbery to the Russian citizen and nowhere in the World something like that has happened. Abramovich at least gave back an small part of the present given to him for free, spending over a billion USD in Chukotka, but in the present economic situation something more has to be done by those oligarchs giving back several billions to the Russian Financial System or to Russian infraestructure. The Yeltsin, or Yavlinsky, idea to give a bunch of young MBAs whole National Companies worth billions of euros was completely ridiculous and stupid, and more now that some of them have a sense of property over the present from the Russian Government and think they shouldn´t give anything back so they are helping other nations like the UK with Russian money instead of helping the Russian Federation.

permalink quote Enrique

Soar 13 October, 2008, 15:26

I advise medium sized businesses about investing in Russia. The first thing necessary to improve the business climate is to make it possible to travel within the country. It is impossible to buy an airline ticket to major conurbations with over a million people unless you turn up at the ticket desk at the airport. It is possible to buy railway tickets over the internet but Express Delviery abroad costs more than the ticket. Many single city airlines do not accept credit cards, even in their home towns. Staying in an hotel for a few days is fine. However, if you need to stay more than a week or so an apartment is more cost effective, flexible and homely. However, unless one has exactly the right invitation from an organisation in that city it is impossible. (The first time investor doing preliminary research will not have such an invitation - maybe not for several visits). At the least this is a formula for trapping all investment in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ekatrinburg gets some UK attention and Samara gets some German attention due to direct flights but this is hardly the whole of Russia. Step 1 Reduce the bureacratic barriers to simple access. Step 2 Internationalise the ability to purchase airline and railway tickets. Complicated stuff about taxes, the byzantine process to set up a company, security of property, corruption, non commercial competitive responses (bullets left in reception), use of zero tolerance administrative measures come later.

permalink quote Soar

Johnny 6 November, 2008, 18:14

Russia, all I can say is that with this economic crisis, you should in theory be attracting wealthy companies like Intel, hundreds of companies. I think you should set up a special department for large business, at least! This dept

permalink quote Johnny

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