AmCham St. Petersburg in 2009

Fig. 1.  AmCham St. Petersburg membership by groups of countries

Fig. 2.  AmCham St. Petersburg membership from EU countries

Fig. 3.  Map of AmCham St. Petersburg membership

Fig. 4.  Flags of AmCham St. Petersburg membership (in the alphabetical order)

Dear AmCham members and friends:

Before the Annual Meeting, we are traditionally summing up AmCham St. Petersburg’s 2009 results.

Notwithstanding the harshening crisis, AmCham St. Petersburg managed to retain its membership representing virtually every major foreign investor in the region, and remain the largest and most influential, truly international business association in Northwest Russia. Over 20 new members joined the Chapter in 2009, proving perspectives of the regional economy. Today our membership flies the flags of 22 countries from three continents (for the complete list of our membership, visit www.amcham.ru/spb/members).

Last year, AmCham St  Petersburg kept its pace in terms of events and activities. We held an event every three working days (80 total), with a quarter of those being big-scale policy and social events, and three quarters — committee meetings (for the complete list of the events and activities, visit www.amcham.ru/spb/news/amcham). The family of the Chapter’s committees grew, too — meeting today’s challenges, we added the Environment, Health & Safety and Automotive committees to the agenda (for the full list of our committees, check www.amcham.ru/spb/committees).

Advocacy has remained AmCham St. Petersburg’s top priority in 2009, with a series of significant successful efforts. Over 50 advocacy activities covered a wide range of issues at the federal and regional levels. Within the full scope of its activities, the Chapter has made major advances in several directions of top importance:

• Lowering administrative burdens. AmCham St. Petersburg’s systematic work on identifying and eliminating administrative burdens got utmost importance in 2009, when the crisis made the barriers an excessive burden that prevents companies from optimizing their operations and requires significant resources to overcome them. Many of those barriers exist at the federal level, and AmCham St. Petersburg in cooperation with AmCham’s Moscow HQ and the city authorities initiates relevant amendments. Among our successes:

  • certain improvement in the migration legislation and administration, including work permits;
  • important administrative reglaments have been adopted;
  • certain improvement in the field of the sanitary protection zones; etc.

  Yet, there are many more issues to resolve, including connecting industrial enterprises to engineering networks; customs logistics and administration; tax administration, etc.

  In this field, AmCham St. Petersburg has developed direct dialog with regional offices of the federal agencies, including:

  • Consumers’ Rights and Sanitary Inspection (Rospotrebnadzor);
  • Ecological and Technological Inspection (Rostechnadzor);
  • Ministry of Emergency Situations’ State Fire Inspection (Gospozhnadzor);
  • Federal Customs Service (FTS) and its Northwest Directorate (SZTU);
  • Federal Migration Service (FMS);
  • Federal Taxation Service (FNS);
  • State Labor Inspection (Gostrudinspekcia);
  • Post of Russia;
  • Federal Arbitration Court;
  • Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS);

  and others — to identify the challenges that investors face when dealing with those authorities, help them resolve the issues on the everyday basis, and suggest ways for improvement.

• Improving investment climate. AmCham St. Petersburg is constantly monitoring application of the investment legislation and keeps suggesting ways of improvement in the direct dialog with governments of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast.

• Taxation. Among many issues of taxation and tax administration, a top priority in 2009 was the Unified Social Tax reform that jeopardized HR-intensive businesses, particularly in the IT sector. AmCham St. Petersburg collected member companies’ input, developed suggestions and forwarded them to the federal authorities through the Moscow HQ and city government.

• Waste management. With the new legislation and administration in the field, member companies faced lack of information and established procedures. AmCham St. Petersburg worked closely with the regional and federal authorities to resolve the issue.

• Labor market and professional development. AmCham St. Petersburg facilitates the multilateral dialog between employers, employees and educational institutions. With the Chapter’s assistance, many member companies have established successful partnership with relevant colleges and universities.

• Competitiveness. One of AmCham St. Petersburg’s top priorities is establishing a dialog between international manufacturers that have built their production facilities in the region, and Russian suppliers and contractors, which can help both optimize logistics and cost structure and increase the localization percentage. Among the wide range of activities in this field, the Chapter regularly organizes round-tables to bring together foreign investors and their potential Russian counterparts and discuss issues of establishing mutually beneficial cooperation and increasing Russian enterprises’ competitiveness.

• Innovations as an integral part of competitiveness are also a priority for AmCham St. Petersburg. Sharing vast international experience of the member companies, the Chapter is actively submitting various suggestions on how to stimulate innovative processes in Russia. In 2009, AmCham St. Petersburg took an active part in developing the St. Petersburg Innovation Development Program, and co-organizing the Russian Innovation Week in St. Petersburg.

• Power saving as a way towards the economic efficiency. Recognizing member companies’ extensive experience in implementing power saving technologies, and AmCham St. Petersburg regularly holds round-tables to share that experience with Russian counterparts.

• Handling individual issues of our member companies.

• And the last but not the least, AmCham St. Petersburg continues actively participating in a number of advisory boards (among those the St. Petersburg Government’s Entrepreneurship Development Council and Industrial Council) and working groups formed by regional authorities, to deliver member companies’ issues and suggestions.

Neither the crisis nor the weather could prevent AmCham St. Petersburg members from having a good rest after a good work. All the traditional social events were preserved in the Chapter’s calendar 2009, attracting generous sponsors and contributors and happy guests:

• the Chapter’s Mini Soccer Cup in June with over 30 member companies’ teams competing and the traditional super game between AmCham St. Petersburg “Dream Team” of member companies’ top executives and St. Petersburg Government’s team headed by Vice Governor Mikhail Oseyevsky;
• the U.S. Independence Day celebration that attracted six hundred guests — AmCham members, regional authorities and diplomats with their families and friends — who enjoyed mouth-watering food from member hotels, foot-tapping music and cheerful entertainment; and
• the Holiday Party in December that gave a nice coda to the hard but interesting 2009.

In 2010, AmCham St. Petersburg does not only continue pursuing the 2009 initiatives, but — considering the quickly changing environment during the economic crisis — is looking for every opportunity to assist member companies.

We cordially welcome your suggestions and initiatives, as best ideas have always come from you, AmCham members!