Business Conference for Russian Investors in Moscow

Zeil: “Bavaria is opening its doors for Russian companies”

MOSCOW / MUNICH  On his delegation trip to Moscow, Martin Zeil, Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs, is promoting Bavaria as a business location. Invest in Bavaria, the business promotion agency of the Free State of Bavaria, has organised a business conference in Moscow under the motto ‘Bavaria is opening its doors for Russian companies’. Zeil: “We want even more Russian enterprises to come to Bavaria and to make their business activities in Bavaria as efficient and profitable as possible.”

In an interactive working atmosphere, more than 70 potential Russian investors used the opportunity to obtain information about Bavaria as an industrial location and the legal framework conditions for business activities in Bavaria. “The number of inquiries from Russian companies interested in setting up a business in Bavaria has increased even further since the beginning of the economic crisis. This illustrates yet again the enormous importance of the State of Bavaria in Russia as a crisis-proof, innovative top location at the heart of Europe”, so Zeil. In her progress report ‘Doing Business in Bavaria’, Mikhail Vasin, Senior Corporate Communications Manager of the Russian IT Security corporation, Kaspersky Lab EEMEA, encouraged participants to set up a business in Bavaria. Headquartered in Moscow, the corporation has a central office for Europe located in Ingolstadt, which alone employs more than 140 people. At present, there are around 50 Russian companies in Bavaria. Not only large companies but more and more small and medium-sized enterprises from Russia are considering a venture into the Bavarian, and hence the European, market.

At the end of the business conference under the motto ‘Bavaria is opening its doors for Russian companies’, Minister Zeil invited those participating in the event to join him at the Bavarian reception with Bavarian specialities and Bavarian music. Here they had the opportunity for networking with some of Bavaria’s high-ranking political representatives as well as with the members of the Bavarian business delegation. In 2009, despite the global financial and economic crisis, the volume of Bavarian-Russian trade came to around eight billion Euros. Russia is therefore Bavaria’s biggest and most important trading partner in Eastern Europe by far. Since 1985, the importance of Bavarian-Russian trade has been reflected in a Bavarian Representative Office in Moscow.