Skolkovo played a pivotal role this week in building trade bridges between Russian and Argentina, entering a dozen startups in a bilateral Moscow business forum held as part of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez’s official visit to the capital.
Fernandez’s two-day visit to Moscow was aimed at drumming up business and investment for her country: She was accompanied by a reported 57 Argentinian companies seeking to enter the Russian market and to forge partnerships with Russian companies back home.
“Argentina is a country in which you can and should invest,” Fernandez told the Russian-Argentinian business forum.
At the forum Skolkovo startups were matched with Argentinian companies looking for high-tech products and services in IT, energy efficiency and biomedical technology.
Skolkovo startups meeting companies from Argentina. Photo: sk.ru.
Skolkovo’s role in incubating and accelerating startups is not restricted to providing grants, investment, mentorship and office space – a key responsibility is helping residents gain footholds in domestic and foreign markets, said Anna Nikina, the head of international projects within Skolkovo’s department of international cooperation.
”The president’s official visit and Skolkovo Foundation’s cooperation with Embassy of Argentina and Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation provided an opportunity to advance B2B relations and opened communications channels between Skolkovo companies and Argentinian business,” she told sk.ru.
By Friday, eight Skolkovo companies had reported back to the foundation on the success they had in finding trade partners. All said the talks were useful, and most startups named at least one Argentinian company that they would be continuing negotiations with in the near future.
According to an account of her trip posted on her official Facebook and Twitter pages, Fernandez was greeted at her hotel next to Red Square by a Russian girl of the same first name – Kristina.
She oversaw the signing of deals between Argentina’s National Commission on Nuclear Energy with Russia’s Rosatom to research and provide nuclear fuel to researchers in Argentina and abroad.
News agencies reported that Russia plans to invest $2 billion in Argentinian nuclear power plants, and Russia’s Gazprom has signed a deal to explore oil and gas fields in Argentina, a project worth another $1 billion.
