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Singapore and Russia Strengthens Ties to Create Start-Up Ecosystems

Marking our country’s 50 years of diplomatic relationship with Russia, two MOU were signed at the Russian Singapore Business Forum. The forum was attended by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and MAS Chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam alongside Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov.

One of which is signed between The Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) and Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) to strengthen the connection between Singapore and Russian startup ecosystems and drive global innovation through joint initiatives.

Following that, Enterprise Singapore signed an MOU with the Russian Export Centre, Skolkovo Foundation and Sistema Asia Capital to encourage the expansion of Russian and Singaporean companies across the respective markets.

To facilitate this, ‘innovation hubs’ are identified in both Singapore and Russia. Singapore and Russia companies seeking expansion into the other market can use the Skolkovo Innovation Center in Moscow and Sistema Asia platform in Singapore respectively as a landing pad. In addition, Sistema will support Singapore companies to establish business relationships within its group.

According to the press release Russia’s population of 150 million people provides a huge, scalable consumer market for Singapore companies in sectors including food, retail, consumer electronics and more.

The e-commerce market is also rising rapidly. It grew at a rate of about 20% annually over the past five years and is expected to be worth US$21 billion by 2020.

The parties said that this gives rise to opportunities for e-commerce enablers including data analytics, logistics and fulfillment services, and Customer Relationship Management systems.

Top industry leaders from both sides also discussed the potential opportunities and challenges of collaborating in two major sectors in Russia – consumerism and technology.

Featured image via Pixabay