Moscow Days in Milan

Sergey Cheremin, the minister, the head of the Department for Foreign Economic and International Relations of Moscow, told why the Moscow Days in Italy are needed.

We met with Sergei Cheremin in Milan, during the "Moscow Days in Italy". He has already made a great trip to the cities of Northern Italy. Venice, Bolzano, Merano, Milano, and, finally, Genoa. In Milan, the Moscow delegation, which he heads, stayed the most.

The program included the business forum, the meeting with compatriots, the meeting with officials and businessmen, and finally a cultural one. Vladimir Spivakov spoke with the State Chamber Orchestra Moscow Virtuosi. The Sports program included a football match with youth teams "Milan" and "Inter" and a simultaneous game of Anatoly Karpov with Italian schoolchildren.

A simultaneous game of Anatoly Karpov with Italian children, photo © Evgeny Utkin

And everywhere was Sergei Cheremin, he headed the delegation, and was its motor ... opened / closed all these fascinating events, met, talked, as if he had 25 hours a day.

- Sergey, you are not the first time in Milan. What led you this time?

- Yes, we were in 2013, then, in 2015, represented Moscow at the universal exhibition EXPO-2015. But this visit is special, it is inspired by the success of this format in France. We, inspired by the success there, adapted the format for Italy, which is one of the key partners of Russia and Moscow. In Moscow operate hundreds of Italian companies.

- What is the reason for the choice of cities, and why the North of Italy?

- The reasons are different. First, the North of Italy have the most developed economy, and here, probably, most suffer from the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. Secondly, we have excellent relations with the mayors of different cities: Venice, Genoa, Milan. Then, we have a large team, and it is more convenient to move from the East to the West in a compact way. You saw, every day we have the most dense program, in different cities.

Forum participants meeting, photo © Evgeny Utkin

- You traveled a lot, met with officials and businessmen. And only in Milan, stayed a little longer ...

- Yes, but Milan is the economic center of Italy, and here we have a serious forum with the participation of Italian companies that work perfectly in Russia, such as INALCA (group Cremonini), Ferrero. In addition, we put emphasis on green and information technology to improve the quality of life, this is the focus of the whole session of the Forum. And, even the idea of developing a carchering we saw in Milan, now it is successfully developed in Moscow by Italians, General Invest financier Vincenzo Trani.

- And how are things going with you in this new business for Russia?

- Not bad. Already in Moscow there are several thousand cars, and soon their fleet is going to increase to 10 thousand. And, probably, even this will be not enough.

Sergey Cheremin saw the idea of developing a carseeing in Milan, photo WEB

- And how goes with ecology in Moscow?

- If you look at the statistics, Moscow remains one of the greenest capitals in the world. The area of green areas in Moscow is more than 50%, for comparison London - 26%, Paris - 21%, Beijing -3.8%. We do not have smog at all, as in Beijing or Shanghai. And we pay much attention to the ecology - plant new trees and bushes, increase bicycle paths and pedestrian areas, monitor emissions of cars and industrial enterprises.

- How does economic relations develop with Italy?

- In recent years, since 2014, trade with Italy has fallen by 60%. This can be called a serious illness. But, like all patients, we recovered from the shock, and now we are on the mend. For the first half of the year our commodity turnover has already grown by 30%. And so it is important for us to develop success now, and the Moscow Days in Italy will help it.

Moscow remains one of the greenest capitals of the world, photo WEB

- You have established an information point in Milan dedicated to tourism and the World Cup 2018 ...

- Yes, it is very important. A lot of Italians visit Moscow, they are the fourth in the world, after the Chinese, the Germans and the French. In addition, they are very fond of football, and many will want to come to Russia for the World Cup. And they need information first-hand.

Evgeny Utkin, Italy, Milan

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