The Moscow Chamber of Trade and Commerce is one of the co-organizers of Russia's Export Potential 2000 Exhibition in Istanbul. The idea of the exhibition came from the president of the chamber, Yury Kotov, a former defense industry engineer.

Q: Yury Ivanovich, people tend to think that Russia has a great export potential in terms of oil, gas and forestry — in other words raw materials. But what else is there?

A: On one hand, you are right. Most of our exports are raw materials. England, France and the United States have long since understood that the earth's natural resources do not just belong to the present generation and that you cannot merely take them out of the ground and squander them. But we continue to do this. On the other hand, different components of exports are now developing. We wanted to show that we have plenty apart from oil, gas and forests, and that we can be useful partners.

Q: But what other sectors are there? If you mean the military or other highly technical manufacturing, you need serious investment to improve the sector, and we can hardly expect that any time soon.

A: That is untrue on several counts. First, the alternative export to raw materials is not only high-technology production, but the food industry and light industry. Small and medium-sized businesses have a lot of potential here. There are already concrete examples of this. Look at the beer industry – they're even exporting to Munich now. Secondly, we have a whole set of original plans and constructors' proposals which, when patented, can and should be sold as individual items. People here don't treat the result of intellectual work the same as commodities. And the third thing, when talking of investment, people immediately mention the investment climate, government policies, government guarantees and so on. But in fact it's often a case of direct contacts. So the most important thing is sometimes that a Russian and, say, a Turkish or Italian businessman get to know each other in order for trust to develop.

Q: Does this mean that the main aim of this exhibition is to enable Russian manufacturers to find foreign partners?

A: Pretty much so, yes. It's interesting that when we first launched this exhibition there was plenty of criticism. People said we'd lose a lot of money and so on. We don't expect to make a profit from the exhibition, but our aim is to increase awareness of Russian business. We believe that even if only a couple of new contracts or cooperation agreements are agreed, it will be a success. Apart from anything else, our manufacturers have to overcome a mass of preconceptions. To a point, we have earned ourselves a name for low quality goods. And although low quality goods also have a market, if these goods cost next to nothing, we don't want to be involved in that market.

Q: So you deal with PR for Russian manufacturing. But the task of changing the old approach is harder than creating a new image, isn't it?

A: Yes, of course. But I prefer old terms such as propaganda and circulating information, rather than PR. We are involved in this not only within the framework of exhibitions. We have a ‘Moscow Quality' program. This is given to products that comply with all the regulations by content, appearance, and correlation between price and quality. The choice is made very carefully. After all, the very reputation of the ‘Moscow Quality' mark depends on what kind of product comes out. When our marque speaks for itself, this will be a considerable help in moving production forward.

Q: It's surprising to hear of the export potential of the Russian food and light industries. How is it that even domestic consumers prefer imported goods?

A: Not at all. Especially with the food industry. Before, people really did prefer foreign products, but you often find that inside the attractive packaging is nothing special. And our producers have long suffered from the inability to make a product stand out. In this regard, we are also trying to make improvements. Russian manufacturers have been catching up with their western counterparts recently. If you take into consideration that our products are generally cheaper, they are competitive. For example, many now prefer Russian yogurt, although this is quite a new product for Russia. But everyone agrees that our yogurts are more natural, the packaging is just as bright and modern as imported ones, but the price is lower. There is a great potential for small and medium business — they are developing quickly. There is an entrepreneur called Ilya Khanrikov. He founded the guild of professional clothes manufacturers with the Moscow Chamber of Commerce, and now they are taking part in exhibitions in Paris — not by chance, but because they really produce good quality clothes which are in demand. It is really very difficult to overcome the traditional perceptions of western consumers. Can you imagine the surprise when a German saw Russian beer in Munich, one of the beer capitals of the world? Even he would have to admit that it's decent beer, though.

Q: You mentioned intellectual products. But even obtaining the international patent demands money which Russian producers simply do not have.

A: Unfortunately that's true. Apart from that, many just don't know how to do it, and Russians are inexperienced in legal obstacles and subtleties. We try to help them. In the schooling process we have an amazing number of quality production and unique items. For example, we had an exhibit at the fair in Hanover. We only had 100 sq. meters, but in that small space we had plenty of interesting things which people were surprised at. We exhibited an ordinary children's bicycle which people thought was nothing special. But we did this on purpose and it attracted people by its very ordinariness. The thing was that its front wheel was in fact a motorized wheel connected to a small accumulator, which people saw when they got close. This device can be used not only on children's bicycles but also in special electrobuses.

Q: All this is good in theory, but how much active interest will it stir up among potential partners?

A: I can tell you that we have already seen interest during the preparations for the exhibition. At first, many people were surprised that Russia was holding an exhibition like this abroad. Now, they are asking where and when the next exhibition will happen and are coming up with suggestions.