Russia-Africa Business Dialogue at SPIEF 2021: Trends, Problems and Prospects for Russian-African Cooperation

Abstract

More than a year and a half has passed since the first Summit and the Russia-Africa Economic Forum. The crisis of “Western-style” globalization, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, has adjusted the formation of the Russian business strategy in the African direction. The most important areas of Russian-African cooperation in the near future are healthcare, ensuring food security, infrastructure projects, including digitalization, education and science. With what results will Russia and Africa approach the next Summit, planned for 2022? Which business strategy will meet both Russian and African interests? What Russian investment projects are already being implemented on the African continent? How are the new mechanism and tools of the Russian-African partnership formed? These and other issues on the Russian-African agenda were discussed at the Russia-Africa business dialogue, which was held on June 3, 2021 as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. This was the first major Russian African event in full-time format after the historic Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum, which was successfully held in Sochi on October 23-24, 2019. The participants in the discussion concluded that Africa needs Russia to achieve the ambitious goals of the Agenda 2063, but Russia also needs Africa to implement the new development strategy of the Russian Federation, which focuses on increasing non-resource exports and technological breakthrough. The African fast-growing market, formed by the youngest population in the world, is showing an increased demand for modern Russian goods and technologies, primarily in such areas as healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, resource development, and digital products. To intensify cooperation, it is necessary to use the entire set of instruments of public-private partnership, to utilize the information resource at full capacity, and to develop cooperation in the field of science and education. The main thing for us now is to bring our cooperation, including in the economic sphere, to a fundamentally new level that meets the interests of our peoples. Both Russia and Africa have a lot to learn from each other, and our economic strategies can be successfully implemented if we combine our efforts.