On July 22, Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Padalko met with UN Under Secretary-General for Operations Atul Khare and his delegation, who participated in a video conference with regional chambers of commerce on the commercial and procurement opportunities of the United Nations.
“I call on all Russian entrepreneurs who are engaged in export activities, export deliveries, who are engaged in international services to pay attention to the opportunities provided by our common strategic partner organization - the United Nations,” Vladimir Padalko said at his opening remarks.
The Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the course of the meeting is streamlined to all Russian regions and the videoconference is designed in such a way as to include Vladivostok. He said that the volume of annual UN purchases is about $ 20 billion. However, Russian companies occupy only a small part of this volume: a little more than 300 million. In this sense, according to him, "there are niches for possible cooperation."
On the official website of the UN, more than 50 thousand registered organizations are indicated, which officially participate in the procurement system - of which 13 thousand are American, 6 thousand are Indian, 2.5 thousand are from the United Arab Emirates, and only 900 Russian companies.
Atul Khare noted that over the years, Russian aviation companies have played an important role in meeting the needs of the UN Secretariat. At the same time, he expressed his conviction that other sectors of the Russian economy and business can play an important role in providing competitive, innovative, highly qualified services for the Organization.
According to Atul Khare, the COVID-2019 pandemic has had a significant impact on the UN, as well as on other organizations and people around the world, on what services it orders and on how it interacts with each other and with business partners. “The volume of procurement of UN Secretariat fell to $ 2.7 billion, although procurement activity remained very intense,” Khare said.
The purchase of medical goods, hospital services, as well as the provision of aviation-medical-evacuation services increased. Russian suppliers provided goods and services worth USD 132 million. And this accounts for 5 percent of all purchases that the UN makes and puts Russia in the top five companies from which the UN purchases. Undoubtedly, aviation companies account for the largest share in UN purchases from Russia. Other services provided by Russian companies are translation services and miscellaneous. If we look at the general picture of purchases made by various UN structures, and not just the UN Secretariat, then the Russian Federation is in 21st place.
Under General Secretary presented to the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce Vladimir Padalko a set of postage stamps issued by the UN and dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Russian Federation.
The delegation included Christian Saunders, UN Assistant Secretary General for Supply, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Director of the UN Information Center in the Russian Federation, Joscha Kremers, Aviation Transportation and Logistics Section at Procurement Division and other employees of the UN Secretariat.
By Petr Cheremushkin, The Chamber Press Service
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