A Dialogue Between Business and Government in Russia Essay Example

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) President, Alexander Shokhin, held a meeting with the Director of International Labor Organization Bureau for the Employers' Activities, Deborah France-Massin (Blasi et al. 2018). It was a session of the World Economic Forum. The meeting involved the staff members of RUIE and ILO. They discussed a range of issues that are related to cooperation between RUIE and ILO, as well as technical cooperation in the Commonwealth of Independent States and beyond based on the expertise of RUIE. The agenda of the meeting constituted a dialogue between the business and government authorities while examining the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Cook 2018, 155).

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Alexander Shokhin said, "Let me start by thanking you for our regular meetings. 'Whenever we meet at the start of the year, I always invite you to the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs annual congress" (Aven and Kokh 2015, 16).

Vladimir Putin who is the President of Russia responded, "Thank you." He continued, "Mr. Shokhin, we are meeting as agreed, I know that you have some thoughts, ideas, and proposals on the relations between the state authorities and the business community with regard to work on improving the laws and regulations" (Cook 2018, 161).

Alexander Shokhin said, "We are concentrating now on drafting proposals for implementing the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly" (Guroff, G. and Carstensen 2014, 54). "It contained many concrete signals aimed directly at the business community." Shokhin continued, "We are currently working on a proposal for de-offshorization of the Russian economy, which was one of the key components of the government's address" (Guroff, G. and Carstensen 2014, 56). He argued that due to the current difficulties, there was the need to discuss the state of the business climate, as well as the anti-crisis program. As such, the business officials would share the view with government officials hence making it easy to combine anti-crisis measures or relevant strategic policies. Through that, the current business community and authorities will have responsibility for dialogue.

Alexander Shokhin said, "The joint work was important and fruitful." Particularly, he appreciated the progress of the project put forth by the ILO "Partnerships for Youth Employment in the Commonwealth of Independent States" (Lipman 2013, 230). The ILO implemented the project in different states like Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, as well as the Russian Federation. Deborah France-Massin appreciated RUIE for their support to organize such a productive meeting, which brought different parties together to work in a common platform. She said, "Seeing first-hand how the Russian employers operate and what effort they put in order to make the working conditions of their employees better is revealing experience, and confirmation of great commitment to ILO standards and values" (Lipman 2013, 233).

Deborah France-Massin added, "The ILO priority in the forthcoming period is the Future of Work Initiative, in which the employers' contribution is crucial" (Martus 2017, 280). She called for the need to recognize the manner in which the employers view skills as the vital component of the Future of Work. The role of employers that may include that of the RUIE also ought to be evident in the proposal for an efficient recommendation that will reflect how the business platform views such issues (Martus 2017).

Alexander Shokhin confirmed, "RUIE was willing to join forces with the ILO/ACTEMP and the ILO Moscow Office to promote the Future of Work Initiative launched by the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder" (Malle 2016, 201). Alexander Shokhin asked the business community to express their views about his proposals. The business community said, "On the subject of privatization, we certainly support your view on the criteria for large privatizations" (Malle, 2016, 204). They argued that it was vital to ensure a social focus to privatization in that organizations like non-state pension funds would have a leading role to play. However, the market conditions will determine when to take part in the privatizations.

The business community said, "We realize that the market price of many assets is quite low at present, and if some large business organizations take part, those that were involved in earlier privatizations say, this could raise some questions" (Lipman 2016, 235). They added, "But if pension funds take part, the fact that prices are not so high at the moment could produce excellent results further down the line and give the pension system greater stability" (Blasi et al. 2018, 45). Vladimir Putin agreed with Shokhin's proposals when he said, "Mr. Shokhin, I think that these are interesting proposals you have made." He continued, "We need to take a good close look at them" (Blasi et al. 2018, 63). Putin confirmed that the Finance Ministry supports the proposal about systematizing the non-tax payments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the dialogue brought state officials and the business community together. The different parties cooperated on the need to improve legislations and regulations. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, through their President Alexander Shokhin, drafted proposals on the implementation of the address of Vladimir Putin to the Federal Assembly. The Russian President and his government supported such proposals.

Reference List

Aven, P. O., & Kokh, A. 2015. Gaidars revolution: the inside account of the economic transformation of Russia. London: I.B. Tauris.

Blasi, J.R., Kroumova, M. and Kruse, D., 2018. Kremlin capitalism: Privatizing the Russian economy. Cornell University Press.

Cook, L.J., 2018. Trade Unions, Management, and the State in Contemporary Russia. In Business and State in Contemporary Russia (pp. 151-172). Routledge.

Guroff, G. and Carstensen, F.V. eds., 2014. Entrepreneurship in imperial Russia and the Soviet Union (Vol. 674). Princeton University Press.

Lipman, M., 2013. The Kremlin Turns Ideological: Where This New Direction Could Lead. In Russia 2025 (pp. 220-239). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Malle, S., 2016. The All-Russian National Front-for Russia: a new actor in the political and economic landscape. Post-Communist Economies, 28(2), pp.199-219.

Martus, E., 2017. Contested policymaking in Russia: industry, environment, and the "best available technology" debate. Post-Soviet Affairs, 33(4), pp.276-297.