DRWA Holds Annual Meeting

The Germany-Russia Economic Alliance (DRWA) held its annual meeting at the Representative Office of the Free State of Saxony in the German Federal Government. ACIG was represented by Mikhail Prokudin, Head of the International Relations Division at ACIG Group of Companies and member of the DRWA Board.

One of the key reports was delivered by Vitaly Shmelkov, the First Chairman of the DRWA Board, who summed up the 2015 results and outlined the new areas to be focused on by the Alliance in 2016. Taking into account the difficult economic and political situation for Russia and Germany Vitaly Shmelkov emphasized that “there was need for mutual cooperation between the business communities of both countries based on the common platform promoting their shared interests”. This will be the top priority of the activities of the DRWA that is meant to become such a platform and contribute extensively to the development of mutually beneficial relations between Russian and German businesses.

The address to the meeting participants also included the official presentation of the Strategy Journal released by ACIG. Vitaly Shmelkov pointed to the significant input made by ACIG and Viktor Tolmachev, Chairman of the ACIG Supervisory Board, to the work of the Alliance and expressed eagerness to assist in the distribution of the journal in Germany.

The meeting continued its work with a panel discussion themed “Russian-German Economic Relations: Current State, Problems and Prospects” and attended by Vitaly Shmelkov, First Chairman of the DRWA Board, Per Fischer, Member of the Board of the German-Russian Forum, Dr. Hartmut Mangold, State Secretary of the Saxony Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport, and others.

The events were accompanied by the discussion of the potential cooperation between member companies in various fields and resulted in the summarizing of