Made in Germany (english)
Studio Guest – Heinrich Weiss: New President of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce
Heinrich Weiss is chairman of the SMS Group. Now he is president of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce. We talk to him about business with Russia, the opportunities and risks.
DW-TV: I've been joined now by Heinrich Weiss – the new president of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, and he's also chairman of the SMS Group. My first question is why do we need a Russian-German Chamber of Commerce?
Heinrich Weiss: This is a very normal thing between two market economies. We didn't have that in Russia until recently. It used to be a socialist or communist system but after Russia has been gradually introducing a market economy it became necessary to have a chamber of commerce to ease the trade between the two countries.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: DW-TV: So it acts as a kind of mediator. Nevertheless, German investment in Russia has quadrupled since 2003 and it's slowly but surely closing in on German direct investment in China. So Germany is putting an awful lot of trust into the German-Russian business relationship. Is that justified?
Heinrich Weiss: Yes, absolutely. German companies want to develop trade with Russia. But in the last few years there were a lot of obstacles starting with bureaucracy and corruption and other things. But recently with Putin and now with Medvedev I think there's a new liberalism coming into trade and German companies who export to Russia want to have their own companies there and are investing as they have done in China.
DW-TV: You mentioned the word corruption. Sadly, every country has some cliches that they have to live with and certainly Russia has to live with the cliche that business is done in a corrupt way. Where does this cliche come from, does it still hold true?
Heinrich Weiss: Yes, it's still true but you have to be aware of the differences. It's not within trade and it's not within export-import. Corruption is a problem between the authorities and the state administration and the companies and the business people. So, it's not between business people and it's not between investment streams.
DW-TV: When the gas pipeline being built between Russia and Germany is completed, forty per cent of Germany's gas will come from Russia. If Russia's Gazprom had an issue with Germany, it could happen that Germany might no longer have any gas?
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Heinrich Weiss: Yes, of course we have a certain amount of dependence but it's not as dramatic as it's sometimes made out to be because gas is only one source of energy in Germany. We have oil, we have alternative energies and we will probably have nuclear power soon again. So from that point of view the dependency is not as big as it seems to be and we also have to recognize that Russia is very interested in exporting gas. There's no Soviet dictator who might have the idea of shutting down the pipeline. They're businessmen who are interested in making money with the pipeline.
DW-TV: Okay, so you're saying that both sides are dependent on each other. We saw something last year where Russia founded a lot of what are called holdings consisting of up to fifty small companies and they're all in state hands. What take do you have on that?
Heinrich Weiss: I don't think that's a typical picture of Russia's industrial structure. I think more and more private entrepreneurs are coming up. We don't have a medium sized business structure like we do in Germany. There are small companies and large investment groups who operate and invest on a big scale. But increasingly we will have more medium sized companies who will be interested in supplying goods to Germany.
(Interview: Monika Jones)
