AmCham SPb Events

Welcome Aboard!

Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel & Courtyard by Marriott St. Petersburg Vasilievsky Hotel
Luxoft
Treves - Ergon
Linxdatacenter
Anglo-American School of St Petersburg
Heineken Breweries
St Petersburg State University Alumni Association
Sea Fishing Port LLC
Quantenna Communications
Sperasoft Studios

Full list of members

www.amchamrussia.ru/spb/news/newsletter_3_may14

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St Petersburg Chapter Newsletter - Issue 3

St Petersburg Chapter Newsletter

June 2014

New Members – welcome aboard!

· Big Brothers Big Sisters of Russia

· Borenius Russia

· Danone Russia

· Higher School of Economics

· Hilton St. Petersburg Expoforum and Hampton by Hilton
St. Petersburg ExpoForum

· MM Polygrafoformlenie Packaging

· Regus

· St Petersburg Club
of Legendary Motorcycles

· Synopsys SPb

· Yusen Logistics Rus

AmCham Member
Assistance

AmCham is always ready to support its members by addressing company-
specific and sector issues
and bureaucratic challenges that affect your business.
If you need our support,
please contact
Maria Chernobrovkina,
AmCham St Petersburg
Executive Director:
maria@spb.amcham.ru

You can always reach us
by
email:
all@spb.amcham.ru
phone +7 812 448 1646
fax +7 812 448 1645

Our office hours are:
9 a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday through Friday (except Russian public holidays).

AmCham – Government Dialog: Latest News

In addition to the membership at a number of the regional governmental councils – such as the St Petersburg Investment Council, Investment Council of Leningrad Oblast, Economic Council under the Governor of St Petersburg and the Industrial Council of St Petersburg, AmCham St Petersburg has become a member of the:

St Petersburg Investment Committee’s Council for reducing administrative barriers
NW Customs Administration Advisory Council

Participation in these Councils give AmCham an access to the governmental decision-makers. If you have any ideas, suggestion or concerns, which you’d like AmCham to raise on your behalf at these Councils meetings, please send them to us at all@spb.amcham.ru.

High-level meetings and key events – January - May 2014:

AmCham St. Petersburg hosted a roundtable discussion with Natalia Larionova, Director of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Dept., Russian Ministry of Economic Development, who met with representatives of the member companies working in the automotive industry to discuss further development of the automotive industry and possible measures of the state support for localization as well as search and development of potential or existing suppliers - small and medium manufacturing companies.
AmCham’s member companies representatives and Executive Director took part in a roundtable meeting with Boris Titov, organized by the Russian Business Ombudsman’s office, to raise and discuss the most pressing issues of the large industrial enterprises in St Petersburg.
AmCham Investment and Legal Committee met with Vadim V. Vladimirov, Head of the St Petersburg Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.
Representatives of the OEMs and Tier 1 supplier companies met with Anatoliy Kotov, Chairman of the St Petersburg Committee for Economic Policy and Strategic Planning, to discuss further development of the automotive sector in St Petersburg and the possibility of support from the city administration.
AmCham member companies representatives – legal consultants and in-house lawyers – took part in the seminar on ‘Legislation and Legal Practice Update-2013 and Outlook for 2014’ to discuss key changes to the Russian legislation and legal practices in 2013, as well as major trends for 2014 presented by the AmCham member companies’ leading consultants.
AmCham’s Tourism & Hospitality Committee met with Inna Shalyto, newly appointed Chairman of the St Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development, to discuss ways to even out the seasonal imbalance of guests in St Petersburg hotels as well as other specific issues and suggestions for the City's hospitality industry development – e.g. 72-hours visa and property tax abolishment for hotels.
AmCham St Petersburg 17th Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony: Over 150 top executives of the AmCham member companies, regional government officials and diplomats took part in the 17th Annual Meeting of the Chapter. AmCham's guest speaker, Birgit Hansl, Lead Economist and Sector Leader with the World Bank, made a presentation on "Confidence Crisis Exposes Economic Weakness in Russia". The meeting featured a number of high-level officials form St Petersburg and Leningrad oblast.
This year AmCham launched two new programs – ‘Industrial St Petersburg’ Tour program to share manufacturing member companies’ experience in LEAN management, labor safety and other issues; and a ‘Hotel Tours’ program to familiarize AmCham members with possibilities and facilities which hotels have to offer to their existing and potential clients. Also, new marketing tool for member companies – ‘Member2Member’ newsletter – was launched at the end of last year.

Total list of events in January – May 2014 can be found here: AmCham Events.

AmCham Advocacy Pipeline

TOPIC	ACTIONS	STATUS
Automotive industry development in St Petersburg	Following the meetings with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development as well as regional authorities, a roadmap for the Automotive industry development in St Petersburg, with AmCham members’ suggestions on tax incentives and non-monetary measures, was developed and delivered to the St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast authorities for further consideration.	Work in progress. Working meetings with the relevant St Petersburg government committees are being held.
IT Cluster Development	A roadmap for IT industry in St Petersburg was developed and submitted to the city’s authorities - AmCham’s suggestions on potential measures of support for the IT cluster were presented at the meeting of the Investment Council under the Governor of St Petersburg at the end of April.	Work in progress. Working meetings with the relevant St Petersburg government committees are being held.
Tax incentives for IT, automotive and hospitality industries	AmCham’s suggestions on tax incentives for the hotels, IT and automotive industries were collected, consolidated and presented to the Governor of St Petersburg at the Investment Council meeting on April 30.	Work in progress
Traffic limitation for trucks in St Petersburg	AmCham continues its work on resolving the issues caused by the St Petersburg Government Decree N 272 on “Procedure for temporary restriction or termination of vehicle movement on the regional motor roads in St Petersburg”.	All traffic sings 3.4, negatively affecting member companies operations, have been identified and most of them removed. Work in progress.
Customs issues	Following Customs & Transportation Committee meeting in February, AmCham asked its members to provide information on the financial consequences of tariffs growth at the container terminals of the St Petersburg Port. Consolidated inquiry was sent to the Federal Antimonopoly Service Office in St Petersburg.	Waiting for response. Public hearing will take place in July. All interested parties can participate – we shall keep AmCham members informed.
Rosreestr issues	AmCham asked its members to inform the Chapter about their problems with RosReestr. Collected data was discussed at a joint Manufacturing and Investment & Legal Committees meeting, and a letter outlining these problems sent to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.	Waiting for response.
Draft Law on “Amending Federal Law "On Special Economic Zones in the Russian Federation"	Following the discussion at the joint Customs & Transportation and Taxation Committees meeting on April 9, consolidated list of AmCham’s suggestions and comments on draft law was forwarded to the Ministry of Economic Development.	Response from the Ministry received. Further actions required.
Waste water norms application in St Petersburg	AmCham is working on improving legislation on local wastewater treatment facilities to ensure the mitigation of current norms and unification of deadlines.	Work in progress.
PeterburgGas	AmCham asked its members whether they’ve experienced any problems in obtaining a conclusion on technical ability of connection to the gas distribution network from PeterburgGas or Lenoblgaz – after the RG Decree N 1314 on “Approval of the rules of connections of the capital construction objects to gas distribution networks” came into force on March 1, 2014, gas distribution companies stopped issuing such conclusions due to the lack of methodology for calculation of payment amount for technological connection and/or standardized tariff rates.	Letters outlining the issue were sent to the Governors of St Petersburg and Leningrad oblast. Work in progress.
Krasny Bor Landfill closure	AmCham raising an issue of Krasny Bor landfill closure for waste recycling at a joint meeting of the Investment Council under the Governor of St Petersburg and the Investment Council under the Leningrad Oblast Governor and at the meeting with Rosprirodnadzor representatives. Data on AmCham member companies’ hazard waste classes and its volumes collected.	Work in progress.

AmCham Success Stories

A number of suggestions from the AmCham’s Automotive industry development roadmap were included into the Strategy of Industrial development of St Petersburg: creation of a Cluster Development Center; expansion of the Special Economic Zones regime in St Petersburg.

Wastewater treatment plants - the requirements of the law obliging to construct wastewater treatment facilities was postponed until January 1, 2015.

Traffic limitation for trucks in St Petersburg – nearly all traffic sings, affecting member companies operations within the industrial zones, have been removed; only 2 left.

Quotas for disabled – rules for employment of disabled were modified, and quotas will be calculated not from the total amount of employees but from the number of employees working in non-hazardous conditions.

PeterburgGas issue - in response to AmCham’s letter on the issues of obtaining a conclusion on technical ability of connection to the gas distribution network we have been informed that PeterburgGas will renew issuing such conclusions from July 1. Please let us know if you get a refusal from PeterburgGas.

Road infrastructure development: project in one of the industrial zones - Pulkovo area – has been included into the General plan of St Petersburg.

Pulkovo Customs experiment – being a member of the Working group on administrative burdens reduction in St Petersburg, AmCham initiated an experiment at Pulkovo Customs on switching to a 7-day operation mode for the period from April 1 – May 1, 2014.

We sincerely thank everyone for their valuable contribution to these advocacy successes!