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Feb 26, 2004: CEO Forum with David Cote of Honeywell

In February, the Chamber introduced its latest networking event, the CEO Forum, with title sponsor PricewaterhouseCoopers. This ongoing event will feature a series of informal breakfast roundtable discussions with CEOs of major global corporations. The visiting CEO will have a unique opportunity to meet with a select group of senior executives of AmCham member companies and leading Russian corporations. Prior to the official launch of the CEO Forum, Honeywell CEO David Cote took a minute to speak with AmCham News about Russia as an investment destination.

From your point of view, what kind of growth potential do you see in this market?

The growth potential looks very good. You would have to say the prospects are very good, just based on recent history, the changes everyone is making here and on the fact that Western companies are starting to move in.

Are there any obstacles on the U.S. or Russian side that hinder the development of high-tech cooperation in the commercial area?

Well, there are just the same concerns that everybody has whenever they move into an emerging market. Things like constancy of law, reliability of the court systems, protection of intellectual property – those are the sorts of things that all of us are always concerned about. And, anything that causes equilibrium there, so that you can feel confident in what's going to happen. Businesses don't like too many changes or surprises. You like to see something that you can count on and that is reliable. Dealing with ambiguity just makes life that much more difficult.

Given the situation in Russia, do you see predictability not ambiguity?

I would not go that far. I would say that's one of the concerns people still have. Everybody feels confident. People feel comfortable, including me, with the kinds of changes that we see coming. But, you'd like to see more history of equilibrium. Being able to continue to eliminate any ambiguity is a good thing.