Russia Business Forum

Eisenhower Institute Holds Workshop with US-Russia Business Forum

 

Matthew Murray of Sovereign Ventures and Jane Howard of Bechtel discuss some of the lessons learned by their organizations in Russia during the last ten years.

WASHINGTON, DC, June 5, 2002 -- On June 5, the Eisenhower Institute teamed up with the US-Russia Business Forum to conduct a workshop with a number of prominent US business leaders to discuss the last ten years of US-Russian cooperation in business. The workshop was used to solicit the views of a number of key US business leaders on the lessons learned over the course of the last ten years of US-Russian cooperation in strategic areas of business, such as the fields of high technology, energy, and financial services.

US-Russian business cooperation is serving as a key comparative component of the Institute's project, Ten Years Later: Assessing US-Russian Engagement in Space, which is looking at the lessons learned by both Russia and the US during the last ten years of US-Russian space cooperation. Looking at business cooperation will place cooperation in space within the broader economic and political context of US-Russian relations during the last ten years, thereby allowing the Institute to better evaluate the relative achievements of space cooperation.

Following the meeting, Institute President Susan Eisenhower remarked, "Through this workshop, we gained a great deal of insight on what people in the US business community have learned from the last ten years of working with Russia. This will serve as a valuable comparison to what has been learned in the space programs and aerospace industries of both countries."

In addition to the work that has been done on the US side, the Institute has also held extensive meetings with Russian business leaders in and around the Moscow region. For example, recent discussions have taken place with, among others, former Russian Prime Minister and now President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia Yevgeny Primakov, as well as President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Arkady Volsky.