OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2012. CCI of Russia Vice-President Georgy Petrov has met with Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and World Trade Center President and CEO Martin Salloum (Canada).

Georgy Petrov told the Canadian guest about the system of Russian chambers of commerce and industry, the role and tasks of the CCI of Russia and the interaction with other business associations and authorities and dwelt on services offered by the Chamber in the foreign economic field, including international commercial arbitration, issue of certificates of goods’ origin and permits to open representative offices of foreign companies in Russia and promotion of international contacts between Russian and foreign businessmen.

Martin Salloum presented peculiarities of the activity of Canadian chambers of commerce and said that the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce was the biggest in the country and had more than 3,000 member companies. The Chamber is special: the World Trade Center Edmonton is its international unit, which also supports foreign relations of 20 territorial and municipal chambers of the entire Northern Canada. Therefore, the World Trade Center Edmonton assists in foreign economic activity of 10,000 Canadian companies.

Georgy Petrov and Martin Salloum discussed operation of the Network of Northern Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations (NNCCBA) established by business executives of Canada, the United States, Russia, Finland and Iceland in Toronto in March 2009. The sides noted similarity of socioeconomic development objectives of northern regions of all pre-Arctic states and terms of operation of local business and the availability of unused potential for interregional economic cooperation and exchange of experience.

Georgy Petrov stressed that the CCI of Russia had always supported direct contacts between businessmen from northern Russian regions and their foreign partners. He said that such contacts were promoted by the Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Northern (Circumpolar) Territories and the Arctic Zone of Russia founded in December 2010. In the opinion of Georgy Petrov, a key question of the Network activity is the establishment of constant information exchange between members and gave an example of the broad interaction between businessmen of Northwestern Russia and Northern Norway.

Martin Salloum supported the approach and noted that the business community of Northern Canada intended to step up the establishment of direct contacts with Russian businessmen and entrepreneurs in pre-Arctic regions of Northern Europe. An agreement was reached to have a constant dialog on the issue between the CCI of Russia and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.

President of the CCI of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District – Yugra Alexander Kobanov took part in the meeting.