#6
strana.ru
April 11, 20002
U.S. Business Chief Urges Cautious Marks for Russian Corporate Conduct
Transition historical and unprecedented, chamber boss tells those bringing in a verdict
By Michael Stedman

Observers judging Russia's corporate laws and standards against international norms have been cautioned by a top U.S. business leader to return their verdict in the light of the "truly historical feat" achieved in the last decade.

His appeal asked foreign critics to recognize that "from a historical perspective, the speed of this economic transformation is unprecedented." The plea was delivered to members of Moscow's U.S. business community by their representative leader, American Chamber of Commerce Russia President Andrew Somers.

Russia's achievements should be kept in mind by those "assessing gaps still prevailing in the Russian marketplace when measured against international standards," he said, noting the state's transition from one-party rule to democratic government in just ten years.

Somers made his views known in comments recalling the chamber's decision to file with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce a 46-page memorandum supporting Russia's request to be treated under U.S. trade law as a market economy.

The gaps between business practice in Russia and that applied internationally had "narrowed considerably in the past year on the legislative front," he writes in the current issue of AmCham magazine.

Market status for Russia had been backed in the memorandum, he said, by examples of "substantial legislative successes."

These included a new Labor Code balancing rights and obligations of employer and employee, legislation reducing business tax to 24 percent, "one of the lowest in the world," and a revolutionary Land Code granting rights to buy and sell land. This was "a watershed event for the Russian marketplace," Somers said.

With these developments setting the stage, alongside two consecutive years of solid GDP growth and expansion forecast again this year, "American investment in Russia should and will substantially increase," he predicted among Russian operations of some American companies "outperforming all other business units within their worldwide corporate structures."

The challenge would come, though, in moving from paper to practice. "Will the bureaucracy charged with carrying out the new laws be sufficiently trained, motivated and supervised to make radical adjustments in their tasks and behavior?" he asked.

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