On December 17, 2004, the CERBA and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) signed a joint agreement establishing the Canada Russia Business Council (CRBC). The CRBC is committed to building, strengthening and promoting long-term co-operation between business entities in Canada and Russia.

The impetus for formation of the council arose from Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 12, 2004 at which both leaders expressed a commitment to the nurturing and development of long-term business ties between business interests of Canada and Russia. CERBA from the Canadian side and RSPP from the Russian side were charged with establishing a permanent framework for such cooperation.

From left: Canadian Minister of International Trade James Peterson, State Duma Deputy Vladislav Tretiak, Speaker of the House of Commons in Canada Peter Milliken, and RSPP President and CRBC Co-Chair Alexander Shokhin at the 2005 CRBC in Moscow.

The CRBC was created in 2005 by the Canada Eurasia Russia Business Council (CERBA) and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) and held its first general meeting in October 2005 in Moscow.  The work of the CRBC has been carried out through the establishment of active committees with the participation of Canadian and Russian industry leaders, each focusing on an individual sector of the bilateral trade and investment relationship. In addition, the Council is mandated to assist in the resolution of any trade disputes and will work towards the reduction or elimination of trade and investment barriers. There were four original CRBC committees: Energy, Mining & Metallurgy, Transportation & Aerospace, and IT and Telecommunications, which are co-chaired by both Canadian and Russian companies.  The main objective of the CRBC and its committees is to facilitate business-to-business contacts and to bring issues of concern to the attention of respective governments.

Russia’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref (left) and Canada’s Minister of Trade James Peterson (right) address CRBC participants.

The CRBC is committed to building, strengthening and promoting long-term co-operation between business entities in Canada and the Russian Federation.  The work of the CRBC is carried out by the active committees with the participation of Canadian and Russian industry leaders, each focusing on an individual sector of the bilateral trade and investment relationship.  This event will include committees meetings.

CERBA’s Russian partner for this initiative is the Russian Union of Industrialist and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), which unites approximately 1,000 members from the Russian private companies and state-owned enterprises. Some of the major RSPP members are LUkoil, Rosneft, Gazprom, Golden Telecom, Rusal, Sistema, Base Element, Itera, Ingosstrakh, MDM Bank, Severstal, Aeroflot, Tatneft, and Alfa Bank.