Today the 15th Congress of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers) will take place.
   Yesterday’s meeting of the Managing Committee Bureau of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs confirmed Viktor Rashnikov’s, General Director of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, appointment as a new member of the Union’s Managing Committee Bureau.The necessity to introduce new members into the Managing Committee Bureau of the Union appeared due to the fact that Aleksandr Shokhin, who became the head of Entrepreneurs Associations Coordinating Board, Nikolai Tonkov, who became a member of the Council of Federation, Oleg Eremeev, who was elected to the State Duma, and Yuri Tokaev appointed as the first deputy governor of Ivanovo Region, have resigned.
   The delegation from the South Ural region, which consists of 12 people, will be headed by Viktor Rashnikov, General Director of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, who is also President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Chelyabinsk Region. The head of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works has been managing the regional branch of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for many years. Moreover, Viktor Rashnikov is a Vice President of Employers Association of Chelyabinsk Region.
    The main issues of the Congress agenda are the following: economic situation in Russia and the Union’s suggestions how to increase the competitiveness of the Russian economy. The Union intends to support Russian President’s initiatives regarding strengthening of “vertical of power”. It is not inconceivable that the head of state will visit the Congress. The importance of this forum significantly increased last year, when Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, was a guest at the 13th Congress of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which was held in Column Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow. That time the head of state visited the largest forum of Russian industrialists and entrepreneurs for the first time and stated that business and power had to cooperate to develop Russia and its economy.
    Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs is a kind of trade union of the leaders of Russian business, which has its own branches in all subjects of the Russian Federation and more than 300,000 representatives of industrial, financial, entrepreneur and scientific associations and organizations. It also includes about 100 corporate unions and organizations of all Russian industry sectors as well as some dozens of the largest foreign companies.

Administration of Information and Public Relations, MMK