Alexey Kalinin, Director of the SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Markets Studies, made a speech at the expert roundtable "Chinese Reforms: Challenges for Russia and the World" at the Gaidar Forum on January 14. In his speech, Alexey noted that the reforms create a competitive environment full of opportunities and threats and that competitive advantages are created only through corporate strategies paired with exclusive bilateral agreements.
The main difference between the current phase of reforms and Deng Xiaoping's reforms is that Xi Jinping and his government aims at fostering the expansion of the Chinese economy, which opens a whole new area of competition for Russian companies: Competition with China (and with Chinese companies entering the Russian market), for China (for Chinese investment) and together with China (creation of joint proposals for third countries). In these circumstances, the most efficient way for Russian companies would be to create joint ventures with Chinese companies to create unbeatable proposals for third countries. Among the examples of such cooperation are a joint UAC - COMAC airliner project or GLONASS partnership with Baidou.
