Baku, Azerbaijan, April 27
Trend:
Johan Vanderplaetse, President of Schneider Electric in Russia and the CIS, described how Eurasia needs to pursue smart geopolitics and bet on small and medium-sized businesses, Uzbek media reported.
According to Vanderplatse, ambitions should be directed to creation of new technologies within the Eurasian zone.
He said that investments in infrastructure, good roads, airports, industrial zones play a significant role.
"I have traveled extensively in the CIS and saw best practices such as the Alabuga economic zone in Tatarstan, the successful way of Astana to become a financial hub for Central Asia, the success of the IT cluster in Minsk, etc. These are all the right steps", he said.
He called the support of medium and small businesses a difficult task.
"The strength of the German industry lies in thousands of small and medium-sized innovative companies, and not in the giants such as Volkswagen or Siemens. The same is true for Belgium or France," Vanderplaetse said.
"In Russia or Kazakhstan, everything depends heavily on the huge state-owned companies. Countries of lesser size have not yet expressed a motivation to stimulate medium and small businesses, although this can be a huge competitive advantage within the Eurasian space," he noted.
"We, at Schneider, decided to return to Uzbekistan, although five years ago we closed down our activities in connection with the repressive business climate that had developed under the old regime. The country with a large population and huge potential is opening again to business - this is good news for all of us," the president of the company said.
He specified that the Eurasian Economic Zone is also an important competitive advantage in the geopolitical scenario. The economies of the former USSR countries were closely intertwined with each other, so stimulating free trade within the zone is a reliable driver of economic growth.
Kyrgyzstan has cheap hydro power, and it is located next to China, respectively, Kyrgyzstan could play the role of a hub for data centers and energy supplies to Central Asia and Western China - in fact, the same role that Iceland plays for Western Europe. Finally, Uzbekistan opens up a new way with the advent of the new administration.