Moscow City Hall Council to Address Foreign Business Concerns

The Council for the Protection of Rights and Legitimate Interests of Business Entities convened for the first time at Moscow's City Hall on Friday.  The Council, which aims to deal with both Russian and foreign concerns, is led by Alexei Komissarov, chief of City Hall's Department for Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship.   "It's an effort to include foreign business" in shaping the city's investment policy, said Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, who was invited to sit on the Council.  At its first session, the Council spent a significant portion of its meeting on the issue of connections to the electrical grid — a pitfall that bogs down many local entrepreneurs.  The Council then listened to concerns raised by Somers on behalf of foreign businesses, which included a requested transitional period for kiosk refrigeration requirements, and a softening of the city's stance on English-language signs. Somers said that while the meeting yielded no immediate promises, it "was to initiate dialogue."  The Foreign Investment Advisory Council, a high-level group of senior executives from multinational companies, also sent a delegate to the session.  Alexander Ivlev, a partner at Ernst & Young in Moscow, represented the Foreign Investment Advisory Council, and said that the next step for the Council was to tell businesses how they could use the new channel of communication with the city government.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/moscow-gives-foreign-business-a-say/453624.html