Events
Meeting with Director General of the Russian Export Centre Veronika Nikishina
Director General of the Russian Export Centre Veronika Nikishina briefed the President on the growth of Russia’s non-resource and non-energy exports and the contribution of state development institutions to the realisation of the domestic businesses’ export potential.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Nikishina, is it correct that 1.38 trillion rubles’ worth of projects have been implemented with the support of the insurance support you head?
Director General of the Russian Export Centre Veronika Nikishina: Yes, that is correct.
Vladimir Putin: Is there anything you need, such as more funds?
Veronika Nikishina: No, Mr President. The Russian Export Centre (REC) is part of the VEB.RF group. It is a specialised institution established to support the key sectors of Russian industry, such as mechanical engineering, timber processing and agro-industrial complexes, metallurgy, and chemistry of high limits. The REC is aware of the importance of our work for at least the following three reasons.
To begin with, no country in the world can succeed without effective and strong non-resource exports, which are an essential element of the country’s connection to its key partners. This is exactly why various protectionist measures have been used to restrict our economic power in these sectors. This began long before 2022, it’s just that in 2022, as they say, the masks were pulled off.
Second, non-resource exports are a foundational feature of a cluster of globally competitive companies. To maintain their leadership and competitiveness in international markets, they need to continuously improve their products technologically. In other words, non-resource exports are a driving force behind our technological advancement and these companies’ leadership.
Third, and very importantly, non-resource exports create high-performance and high-paying jobs. Moreover, one job in the non-primary products sector leads to the creation of two jobs in related sectors due to intersectoral cooperation, such as the supply of component parts, transport, technological, engineering and other sectors. To date, six million jobs have been created in Russia thanks to non-resource exports.
We, the Russian Export Centre, are part of the export support system, which has evolved through a three-stage process over the past few years.
The first stage began in 2018, when non-resource exports were declared a national goal in accordance with Presidential Executive Order On National Goals and Strategic Development Objectives of the Russian Federation until 2024. A national project was formulated in 2019, and we started forging the best export support system in the world – something I can substantiate with figures. The system was structured around three key elements: the tools outlined in the national project, the resources allocated to implement them, and infrastructure that provided these tools.
Why is our state export support system the best in the world? In 2018–2021, our non-resource exports grew by 28 percent, significantly outpacing global trends. In 2021, we posted record-breaking non-resource exports.
Then came 2022 and the imposition of sanctions, marking the second stage in the evolution of our export support system. The main objective during this stage was to readjust disrupted trade ties and to redirect exports to markets of the friendly countries.
By the end of last year, we successfully completed this stage. Today, 85 percent of our non-resource exports go to friendly countries. As of late 2024, our non-resource exports to these markets increased by eight percent in physical terms.
Now, in 2025, we have entered the third stage. We would like to thank you once again for including our revised national project, International Cooperation and Exports, in the list of national projects that have been approved for the next strategic cycle.
Now, to the performance results of the Russian Export Centre over this period. In the past four years, we have offered support measures to non-resource exports worth over five trillion rubles, or 5,250 trillion rubles to be precise, which means that one in nine rubles of non-resource exports went to foreign markets thanks to our support.
We have created a set of tools for every stage of an exporter’s lifecycle, from the initial idea to start exporting to the actual export deal and even post-sales support.
I must commend Russian constituent entities for playing a very important role in achieving this very ambitious but attainable national goal. Regardless of their export potential, almost every region has a well-coordinated and highly professional regional team.
Many governors are personally involved in promoting their regions’ export assets. Eighty-three regions have dedicated infrastructure that includes export support centres to promote small and medium-sized exporters.
Overall, I want to highlight that our SME exporters have proven to be highly adaptable to the challenges of recent times, ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of SME exporters has almost doubled since 2020.
As for our future plans, VEB approved its updated strategy last year, while the Russian Export Centre has set an objective to increase the value of non-resource exports to at least 12 trillion rubles by 2030. We know how to achieve this goal and we are ready.
We are going to pursue two directions here. First, we will expand the geography of our exports. We will also broaden the range of products that we are ready to offer to our partners.
Here I would like to focus on one of the highly effective tools that helps boost awareness of our products abroad, because ignorance of our capabilities is one of the challenges in new markets. I am referring to the Made in Russia programme.
We are grateful to you for supporting this programme. If you recall, you visited our booth at the EXPO in Harbin last year. Our booth was part of our Made in Russia festival and fair. Chinese consumers have shown significant interest in Russian products following such events.
Even foreign media have taken notice. Last week, both Bloomberg and CNN reported on our programme and its effects, saying that the demand for Russian products is booming in China.
Since last year, we have held five festivals in various provinces of China and in the United Arab Emirates. This year, thanks to your support, the programme has become governmental. Currently, we are developing a plan of events jointly with the ministries of industry, agriculture, culture, sport, and economy.
I would like to report separately on our partnership with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). Since this year, our Made in Russia programme has partnered with the See What a Success We Are competition. This competition involves emerging brands, and you have supported it. This year and in all subsequent years, winners of this competition, those with an export potential, will be able to use all our support measures designed to promote the Made in Russia programme.
We would like to present you with this bird as a symbol of our partnership with ASI. This three-coloured bird is the mascot of our Made in Russia programme. We are building awareness of our products by featuring this bird on products, virtual e-shelves under the Made in Russia umbrella, pavilions, etc. It flies across many markets of friendly countries.
This bird has been crafted by the Khokhloma artists from Nizhni Novgorod. It is an upgraded design version of the Khokhloma brand. The Governor [Gleb Nikitin] himself promotes their products in external markets. We believe that this bird, this gift, symbolises the strong Made in Russia national brand, which is the total of strong brands representing individual Russian companies that are steadily growing in number.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
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