Minister of Economic Development of Russia Maksim Reshetnikov: The role of Muslim countries grows substantially and we are ready to develop partnership both on the bilateral basis and within the OIC

On 19 May, speaking at a plenary session of the XIII International Economic Summit Russia – Islamic World: KazanSummit 2022 held in Kazan and dedicated to the common consumption economy and the universal benefit of Halal, the Minister of Economic Development of Russia Maksim Reshetnikov said that Russia is interested in developing cooperation with Islamic countries.

As Reshetnikov said “the world economy has encountered new challenges such as collapse of delivery chains and mechanisms and the threat of inflation in the largest economies. The unprecedented sanctions pressure on Russia aggravates the situation as initially the limitations were aimed at destabilizations and erosion of Russian economy but in fact they are destroying the whole world economy and trade, resulting in increase of prices, aggravate wellbeing of people in many countries of the world and stimulate inflation”.

He underlined that our country has been long living under sanctions and “we have learned to adapt to the changing environment proving the sustainability of Russian economy. The situation in the currency and financial markets has become stable, there is now slump of production and the explosive growth of unemployment, the inflation slowed down resulting in the drop of the interest rate and recovery of credit financing. The country has formed its margin of safety for further transformation of our economy and its growth”.

Reshetnikov continued: “The role of Muslim countries is growing substantially in the modern world and we are ready to develop partnership both on the bilateral basis and within the OIC as in the last three years the trade turnover of Russia and the OIC countries increased by 25 per cent. It is high time to develop joint projects using new possibilities” and added that joint development of industrial zones and technical parks is “an extremely promising sphere”.

“There are gaps in the Russian market which can be occupied by the import from Islamic countries. Moreover Russia has headed for lifting import limitations and together with our partners from the Eurasian Economic Community we have waived import duties from more than 1 .300 goods which makes 15 per cent of our import”, the Russian Minister informed and reminded about more than 100 large joint projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, the UAE and Egypt being implemented with participation of the Russian business.