Russian business in « friendly » markets: the results of the Action Finance survey
Russian business turned out to be inert in the development of business in “friendly” jurisdictions: most enterprises that work with them opened such a business until 2022, and then continued to master familiar areas, showed the Action Finance survey (part of the Action group) 1.2 thousand respondents. The survey was attended by production companies (32%), wholesale trade (31%) and services (29%). Among the interviewed companies with a turnover of up to 1 billion rubles. amounted to 38%, from 1 billion to 15 billion rubles – 51%, over 15 billion rubles – 11%.
In total, 34% of the Russian companies have experience in a “friendly” country over the past two years, another 19% want to enter the markets of new countries. More often, entrepreneurs choose Kazakhstan for doing business (40%), Belarus (35%) and China (31%). Another 13% work in Kyrgyzstan, 11% in the UAE, 10% in Uzbekistan, 8% in Turkey, 7% in Armenia. Most companies (60%) “friendly” countries are needed to expand sales, 38% for parallel imports, 25% for calculations with third countries.
According to the study, more often companies began to work in these markets even before the start of the military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and sanctions. A new wave of access to the « friendly » markets began in 2023 after the adaptation period. So, in Kazakhstan, 66%of the current participants in the country market from the Russian Federation already worked until 2022, 7%came in 2022, and 21%in 2023, and 6%in 2024. In Belarus until 2022-68%, in 2022 4%came, in 2023-20%, in 2024-8%. In China until 2022-55%, in 2022-another 14%, in 2023-23%, in 2024-9%.
The most comfortable Russian business in Belarus: 64% of respondents do not see the shortcomings of work in the country. Only bureaucracy and the low level of digitalization of departments (20%) and banks (12%) are worried. When working in China, 36% of respondents do not see shortcomings, 23% lack digitalization of banks and are disturbed by restrictions on work due to the Russian origin of shareholders, 18% indicate a high tax burden. It is more difficult to business from the Russian Federation in Kazakhstan: only 3% did not find the shortcomings of jurisdiction. The main problems are the lack of qualified personnel (69%), difficulties due to the Russian origin of shareholders (35%) and corruption (24%). However, only 10% of companies did not reach business herans in Kazakhstan, 48% completed tasks, 42% in the process.
