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Summarizing the Russian Business Week – 2014 during a press-conference on March 21 RSPP President Alexander Shokhin expressed his view that Crimea might prove promising ground for the development of IT and innovation in Russia.
“International experience tells that areas characterized by comfortable living and recreational conditions are especially conducive for hi-tech development, and Crimea could be thought of on a par with Silicone Valley and Cote d’Azur here”, said Mr. Shokhin.
Mr. Shokhin adds that scenarios are being weighed of creating free trade zones of various kinds on the peninsula to help the region into budgetary self-sustainability in the shortest time possible.
Commenting on the latest economic developments, RSPP President focused on the sanctions imposed by the USA against several Russian banks. Mr. Shokhin believes they will be either forced to replace Visa and MasterCard with other payment systems or else shed their businesses completely.
“The danger here is that this can start off a vicious loop of sanctions and countersanctions. Symmetrical as it may be, it will be just infinitely deleterious and I’m convinced no-one is willing to trigger such a runaway process", Mr. Shokhin concluded.
According to Mr. Shokhin, there are reasons to believe that the S&P and Fitch’s cutting of the outlook on the Russian Federation’s BBB credit rating to negative, from stable could lead to a decline in borrowing but is unlikely to result in full-on capital flight.
"So far it’s only an outlook cut, not a rating fall, because the rating agencies have no idea of what exact sanctions will be imposed or what their economic impact will be. Therefore, I doubt that credit and investment institutions will be acting in the heat of the moment. To them, this is more like a moment when they take a pause and size up the situation", added RSPP President.