The 2002 Ninth Annual CIS and Eastern Europe Business Forum

by Shaunda Marie Stormont

Recently at the University of Arizona campus, businessmen were given the opportunity to explore possible involvement in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The 2002 Ninth Annual CIS and Eastern Europe Business Forum was held on November second and third in McClellan Hall and focused on the success of businesses and programs in the CIS and Eastern Europe. It also provided the opportunity for prospective businessmen to explore various fields of business involvement.

The conference itself was divided into seven different sessions. Session one concentrated on the political and economic scene and included presentations by both Linda Wetzel and Keat Preston.

Linda Wetzel, who is an independent consultant on doing business internationally, opened the conference with a quick overview of the political and economic scenes in Russia and Armenia.

She was followed by Keat Preston, who is a research director of global political risk, a senior associate for East Central Europe at Eurasia Group, a country analyst for Poland and Hungary on the Lehman Brothers Eurasia Group Stability Index, and head of the East Central Europe Practice Group for Global Market Role Analysis. He focused on managing political risk for investors in emerging markets, and discussed the volatility factors for Poland's possible membership in the European Union. Poland, which is one of the three leading countries for possible membership in the European Union, is receiving growing popularity of the populist nationalist movement.

During the second session, Wesley A. Schwalje represented two government support agencies called SABIT and BISNIS. SABIT, which is a business development program for Eurasia, was developed to train Eurasian managers and scientists. So far this program has trained over 2,500 Eurasians and has facilitated over $220 million in exports and investments. This organization has both group and grant programs, which can be viewed at www.mac.doc.gov/sabit.

SABIT's sister organization BISNIS facilitates US/Eurasia business partnerships and has initiated $3 billion dollars in investments. All services of BISNIS are free and can be viewed at www.bisnis.doc.gov.

In session three, representatives from Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Hungary assessed the economic status of their countries.

Armen A. Yedigarian, minister counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia examined the economic developments, the regional integration, and the prospects for investment in Armenia. Armenia's top product is jewelry, but it is also a large manufacturer of computer software.

The first secretary of the Embassy of Kazakhstan, Talgat Bazarbekov, highlighted the possible investment opportunities in Kazakhstan. Recently, the Houston Initiative created new opportunities for business collaboration between the US and Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is the second largest oil producer, next to Saudi Arabia, and it also has the largest Uranium reserves in the world. 

Odon Kiraly, consul for commercial affairs in the Hungarian Consulate of Los Angeles, provided information on the Hungarian economic and business environment. Hungary, which is rated the sixth best country to exploit for the expanding industries of the twenty-first century, has a 9.2% inflation rate, a corporate tax rate of 18% (as compared to the US's 40%), and already houses such large businesses as Audi, Electrolux, Ericson, and General Electric.

Sessions four and five both explored different case studies and included a plethora of presenters.

The first presenter, Alan Felton, represented his business Felton International, Inc. and gave a demonstration of his product, the safe needle free jet injector, which he made in collaboration with Voronezh, Russia.

Felton was followed by M.W. "Bill" Washburn, the president of Foodpro International, Inc, who explained his organization and explained that the four main things he learned while starting a business in Eastern Europe were your company must be market driven, you must have a reliable source of supply, the product must have a good price with the value added, and things are seldom as they seem to be.

The rest of the night included presentations by Tom McKinney of Raytheon, David Price of Honeywell's Aerospace Electronics Systems division, Ursula McLoughlin of Corona Hospitality, Inc, Bill McNeil of the Business MAP Software Division of the ESRI, Doug Goodman of Ridgetop Group, and Susan Weidner of the Investors Roundtable.

The final presenter, Susan Weidner, was formerly a senior commercial officer at the US embassies in Kazakhstan and Bulgaria and she was chosen to be the facilitator for the Investors Roundtable in 2001 and 2002 in Kyrgyzstan. She described the results of the ongoing dialogues between the president of Kyrgyzstan and key officials.

A series of presenters on investment and finance in the CIS and Eastern Europe headed the first day.

Radomil Novak of US Operations-West in Czechinvest opened the second day of the conference by outlining the business and investment climate in the Czech Republic. He then proceeded to give a macro- and micro-economic update on the status of the Czech Republic and a brief overview of some of the companies who have already been successful in the Czech Republic, such as Tyco, Johnson Controls, Boeing, and Philip Morris. Right now most Czech businesses focus on biotechnology.

Novak's presentation was followed by Steven L. Johnson of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). He discussed how OPIC can help mitigate for political risks of investment in the CIS and Eastern Europe and gave an outline of their programs, such as their political risk insurance coverage. For more information on international business insurance, go to www.opic.gov.

The next presenter, Natalie A. Jaresko, president of Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) focused on strategies for private equity in the Ukraine and Moldova. She helped the attendees identify the best places to invest in the Ukraine and highlighted on the conducive business environment of the Ukraine.

Gulbarshyn Bozheyeva, commercialization specialist in the US Industry Coalition, ended the session with a presentation on commercialized technologies.

During the final session, Emmett McLoughlin went over the marketing challenges and facilitated a general meeting of the participants to help assess the success of the conference. The attendees formed important ties through this conference and all the attendees, from the students, to the novelist, to the successful businessmen, viewed this conference as an eye opening experience.

 The conference is held every year on the first weekend of November. For information on next year's conference, contact Roza Simkhovich at 621-7341 in the Department of Russian and Slavic Languages of the University of Arizona.