Month: May 2019

On 29 May the training workshop “Export to Singapore and Asia-Pacific countries: prospects for Moscow companies” was held at the Moscow Export Center.

Within the seminar Dr. Sergey Pronin in details elaborated on the structure of B2B market and the peculiarities of doing business in Singapore and Asia-Pacific countries; told about conditions of participation in international e-marketplace, in particular, about  RSTrade platform as a tool for optimization of foreign trade services and automation of trade, logistics, insurance, customs clearance; also presented the integration solution of  RSTrade (Russia) and CameolOne (Singapore), revealing the prospects of participation in this universal solution for export-oriented companies.

In the format of q-a session the participants discussed the peculiarities of economic development of Asia-Pacific region, the possibility of opening Russian business in Singapore and  tools, which support Russian entrepreneurs, including the use of grants from the Singapore authorities.

The information provided evinced keen interest among listeners and in the end of the seminar the discussion continued in a tete-a-tete format. We hope that the training will serve as a basis for the development of relations between Moscow companies and partners from Singapore as well as Asia-Pacific countries.

Sergey Galstyan has been appointed as a representative of the Russia-Singapore Business Council in Indonesia. The appointment decision was made within the General meeting of the Russia-Singapore Business Council, which took place on May 22 in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

Since 2018 Sergey Gagyan has been holding the CEO position in PT. KAMAZ TRUCKS INDONESIA. Earlier Mr Galstyan had been holding leadership positions in affiliated companies of “KAMAZ”, “Czhech Avto» CJSC, “Avangard Motors” CJSC. He also participated in project development in such areas as construction, IT, manufacturing, distribution, etc. Mr Galstyal also took part in a series of military technical cooperation projects. For that he was awarded an honors medal of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation of the Russian Federation.

On 29 May in Omsk region the largest business Forum “Your business is your success” started its work. The event was organized by the Department for Urban Economic Policy of the Omsk City Administration and Omsk Region Development and Investment Agency. This year the event is being held 10 times, but it was the first time the Russia-Singapore Business Council took part in it.

On behalf of the Russia-Singapore Business Council I would like to express special gratitude to Vladimir Dorokhin, who provided the most serious assistance in organizing the event, as well as in organizing meetings of the Council’s experts with representatives of the regional authorities, media and business circles. He served as a moderator of the master class which was carried out by the RSBC experts.

Within the official program of the Forum the master class “New export opportunities: cooperation with ASEAN countries” was held with the participation of Andrey Bykov, Director for strategy and development of the Russia-Singapore Business Council and Alexander Burnatsev, Head of the E-Commerce Department of the executive structure of the RSBC – LLC Rstradehouse. In the format of open discussion there were considered specificities of economic development of the ASEAN countries and the prospects for expanding trade and economic relations with Russian regions, including enterprises of  Omsk region. Omsk businessmen were introduced with the foreign trade support tools implemented by the Russia-Singapore Business Council, primarily international electronic trade and service B2B Platform and the Center for foreign promotion of Russian high-tech companies and presentation of investment projects, opened in Singapore.

There was expressed confidence that the potential of Omsk enterprises to interact with partners from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries is underused and  serious expansion of export-import operations with partners from ASEAN countries is possible. One of the possible factors of it may be the conclusion on the free trade zone between the EAEU and Singapore.

Within the General meeting of the Council held on 22 May in Moscow, there was taken a decision to open the second regional office of the Council in Samara. The first one, as you already know, was opened 2 years ago in Novosibirsk and its work is well known in Siberian regions. The opening of the office in Samara should ensure more active interaction of the Council and its executive structures with enterprises of the Volga region.
The team of Samara office headed by Maxim Bagaev began to work actively at once and on May 27 course of action and support tools of foreign economic activity from the Council, as well as the possibilities of its executive structure – LLC Rstradehouse – were presented to the business community of the region within the largest business Forum in Samara region – “Line of success”, organized by the authorities of Samara region. The Forum is held in the region annually and has established itself as an effective platform for interaction between entrepreneurs, manufacturers, representatives of authorities and business support institutions.

The Forum was attended by the Governor of Samara region Dmitry Azarov. In the format of open dialogue he made a session with experienced entrepreneurs and business-beginners on issues related to the support of small and medium businesses, as well as other relevant topics.
Our Samara office representatives joined one of the round tables of the Forum on export issues called “Working export strategies. Promising niches for export to Asian countries”. Director for strategy and development of the RSBC Andrey Bykov to support colleagues arrived in Samara and participated in export session as an invited speaker with presentation on the RSBC possibilities for the promotion of export-oriented companies to enter South East Asia markets and EEU.
The information provided evinced a great interest among the audience and at the end of the round table discussion continued on the sidelines.
The next day (28 May) there was a working meeting of the experts of the RSBC office with the leadership of the regional branch of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Agreements were reached on cooperation to promote export entry for Samara enterprises, as well as information interaction.
For the coming days a schedule of working meetings with enterprises and organizations of the region has been formed.
We wish our colleagues success and we are confident that their work will benefit the expansion of the export potential of Samara enterprises and their more intensive interaction with partners from ASEAN countries and other regions of the world.

On May 22-24, 2019, IV conference “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia” (CIPR) dedicated to transparent digital technologies and their development prospects in Russia took place in Innopolis (Tatarstan). The strategic partner of the event was the State corporation Rostec. The conference was supported by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, Ministry for Telecommunications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Government of the Republic of Tatarstan, State corporation Rostec, ANO “Data Economy” and Eurasian Economic Commission.

Several members of the Russia-Singapore Business Council took part in CIPR-2019 both as delegates and as speakers and participants of the exhibition. Among them were State corporation Rostec, Shvabe JSC, Yusar+ LLC, Ruselectronics JSC, Concern “Automation” JCS. These companies presented new products and solutions in such areas as aircraft industry, medicine, optics, security, information technologies, etc.
Andrey Bykov, Director of Strategy and Development RSBC took part in the conference. He spoke at the round table “Digital Ecosystem Tools of Eurasian Technology Transfer, Industrial Cooperation and Subcontracting Net” organized by EEC.

Experts discussed the implementation of the project “Eurasian industrial cooperation, subcontracting and technology transfer net”.
Among the key goals of the project are:
– Creation of a digital ecosystem to ensure the interaction of economic entities for the purposes of industrial cooperation, subcontracting and technology transfer;
– Involvement of small and medium enterprises in the production chains of large producers;
– Stimulation of innovation processes through technology transfer;
– Opportunity to promote products of industrial entities using international digital ecosystems of member states and third countries.

Andrey Bykov demonstrated facilities for contract manufacturing automation implemented in international digital B2B Platform RSTrade, which is operated by the executive structure of the Council – RSTradehouse LLC. It was mentioned that these solutions are advisable to be used in the framework of a consortium implementing the project “Eurasian Technology Transfer, Industrial Cooperation and Subcontracting Net”, especially since on April 30, 2019, by the decision of the EEU Intergovernmental Council, it was approved to be implemented first of the Eurasian Union’s digital transformation projects group, and its practical implementation will begin in a month and a half.
The expert of the Council also participated in the work of the round table “Methodology and tools of digital transformation in EAEU projects”.
Participation in EEC projects will expand the possibilities of applying the tools of the Russian-Singapore Business Council to expand non-commodity turnover of Russian companies with partners from ASEAN countries.

The annual General meeting of the Russia-Singapore Business Council took place on May 22, 2019. The Chairman of the Council – Deputy CEO of the State Corporation Rostec Nikolay Volobuev, headed the meeting. The event took place in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Viktor Padalko and representatives of the member companies of the Council took part in the meeting.

Deputy Chairman – Executive director of RSBC Sergey Pronin told about the work of the Council in 2018. Among the achievements he noticed the successful holding of III Russia-Singapore Business Dialogue (April 2018), Russia-Singapore Business Forum (September 2018) and Economic conference within the Days of Economy of Moscow in Singapore, as well as participation of the Council in Saint-Petersburg Economic Forum (May 2018) as an official partner. Along with three business missions of Russian enterprises to Singapore these events made a significant contribution to the development of relations between business communities of Russia and Singapore, EAEU and ASEAN, and facilitated business contacts and partnership. For instance, in 2018 there were signed a cooperation agreement between RSBC and Singapore Manufacturing Federation and the contract for integration between the Russian RSTrade digital platform and the Singapore CamelOne logistic platform.

In 2018, Russia-Singapore Business Council continued promotion of Russian high technologies to Asia Pacific region. For this purpose an Exhibition of Russian technologies was held at the base of the Centre for Overseas Promotion of Russian High-Tech Companies and the Presentation of investment projects. After the end of its work, the exhibition was transformed into a permanent showroom of Russian technologies.
There was also noticed the role which the Council played in strengthening cultural ties of Russia and Singapore. E.g., in November 2018 Russian military orchestras supported by RSBC gave a number of concerts in Singapore with a considerable success. At the initiative of the Council and with funding of its executive company there was published a book marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Singapore. The book was written by a group of Russian and Singapore experts.
In the early months of 2019 the Council organized two business missions of Russian enterprises to Singapore, which were dedicated to aerospace industry (February 2019) and development of radioelectronics, technoparks and telemedicine (March 2019). On March 26, 2019, IV Russia-Singapore Business Dialogue was held with the support and active input of Rostec. The Business Dialogue brought together more than 100 representatives of business community, governmental and public organizations. Among the key events was the signing of Memorandum of understanding between RSBS and the Roscongress Foundation as well as the signing of the agreement with Rostec Radioelectronic cluster on joint founding of the R&D Centre. Representatives of the Russia-Singapore Youth Council, which was founded in 2018 in collaboration with MGIMO, actively participated in the work of the youth section of the event.
In March 2019 within the business mission and IoT Asia 2019 exhibition there was also held a number of meetings between Moscow exporters and Singapore associations, such as AEIS, SIAA and SingEx, which is one of the biggest Singapore operators of business events.

The results of the Council in 2018 – early 2019 received a unanimous positive assessment of the members of the Council and the executives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Head of International Business and Marketing of the executive company of the Council (RSTradehouse LLC) Kirill Solntsev represented the workplan of the Council for 2019. Scheduled activities include the participation of RSBC experts in several sessions of Saint Petersburg Economic Forum, Business mission of Russian high-tech companies and development institutes to coincide with Communic Asia 2019 exhibition of communication and information technologies, and Russian Film Week in Singapore (June 2019). He emphasized, that within the Business mission it is planned to conduct an educational programme on corporate procurement with the participation of Singaporean experts, which is in line with the Council’s aspiration to fully promote the exchange of positive experience in various fields between representatives of Russia and Singapore. In September 2019 there will be held a meeting of the Russia-Singapore High-Level Intergovernmental Commission, and RSBC is going to take an active part in the preparations for it. Finally, the next business mission of Russian companies, this time related to Industry 4.0, as well as cultural and business events dedicated to the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Russian-Singapore Business Council, will take place in Singapore in the autumn of 2019.

Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Viktor Padalko delivered an address to the participants of the meeting. Talking about the Council activities, he emphasized the work of trade and service information B2B Platform RSTrade managed by the executive structure of the Council. Mr Padalko suggested using the Platform as a single source for all Russian business councils.
During the General meeting, the question was raised about the admission of a new member to the Russian-Singapore Business Council – Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education “Samara State Medical University” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. A positive decision was made unanimously, and after that the opening of the Samara representative office of the Russian-Singapore Business Council was also approved.
At the end of the meeting, Vladimir Padalko handed a Letter of gratitude to the Chairman of the Council Nikolay Volobuev. In the Letter of gratitude signed by the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Katyrin there was mentioned a major contribution of the Russia-Singapore Business Council to to development and enhancement of the Russia-Singapore trade and economic cooperation and its assistance in establishment of mutually beneficial links between entrepreneurs of the two countries.

Trade and logistics are complex industries which traditionally have been manual in many of the processes. But in this digital era, those who still depend on manual work have seen their profit margins erode massively. And to meet high customer expectations in present-day competition, these industries have to move towards using technology, to improve efficiency and deliver what the customers need. vCargo Cloud (VCC), an Infocomm Technology (ICT) solution and service provider, offers trade and logistics related solutions to governments and enterprises worldwide, so that they can get started with the technology of today for a better tomorrow.

We wanted to know more about the complexities of these industries and the winds of change that have swept them, and VCC’s contribution in helping them deal with these changes. In a tête-à-tête with Desmond Tay, vCargo Cloud’s Co-Founder/CEO, we learned more about VCC journey.

Tell us vCargo Cloud’s story. How did you get started?

VCC started small, with only eight of us back then in 2013. The journey wasn’t easy but we have transformed into a well-structured, albeit still a nimble and agile team, with close to 200 headcounts now. Initially, we had to wear multiple hats – many of us multi-tasked. We had to be adaptable and flexible and simplifying global trade complexity was always our focus.

We started with trade facilitation-related solutions and began in Mauritius and went on to be appointed as one of the consortia leads by Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore for the e-freight@Singapore initiative. We have grown since then. From being headquartered in Singapore and having just one overseas implementation, we expanded into a global establishment with 3 overseas offices and 16 global deployments.

What are your company products and services?

Our integrated cloud-based platform, CamelONETM has been the gateway for trade between countries and businesses. The platform consists of a suite of interconnected modules to simplify global trade compliance and documentation. The platform has allowed stakeholders to trade and exchange digitalized information seamlessly and conduct their businesses more efficiently and cost-effectively.

CamelONE consists of three layers of solutions namely: Trade Facilitation related-Solution (B2B/G2G), Cargo Community-related Solution (B2B) and Industry-specific e-Commerce Verticals (B2C/B2B).

The Trade Facilitation related-Solution provides Customs Clearance Systems, front-end applications, and connectivity solutions to facilitate customs clearance, cross-border trades and information exchange at the government agency level. The Cargo Community-related Solution integrates trade processes and exchanges trade-related information between different stakeholders to increase efficiency  and productivity and at the same time, it creates new business growth opportunities. And the industry-specific e-Commerce Verticals is a point-to-point, start-to-finish, one-stop, integrated solution matching buyers and sellers for them to efficiently and cost-effectively perform cross-border trades.

What do you think are the challenges faced by customers in the trade and logistics industry today?

There are quite a few challenges. Firstly, the systems used in the industry are isolated and do not support national or international data format standards. It makes it difficult for these systems to work and interface with external systems and the outside world. Therefore these systems are unable to work and interface with the outside world adequately.

Secondly, import and export rules, they are complex and differ in different countries. Because of this inherent complexity in trade processes, few users are familiar with them. Because of this unfamiliarity, traders often shy away from trading in these countries. In turn, this unfamiliarity drives traders away from trading in countries they are not familiar with.

And if you think of the logistics processes, they are equally tedious and laborious as a lot of information has to be exchanged, in a specific chronological sequence, along with many different sets of documentation. Lastly, many in the industry do not have the right knowledge and the resources to splurge on experimenting with new technologies. Hence, they are stuck with dated and old technologies.

And how has your company and its products added value to the trade and logistics industry?

It’s through our CamelONE. With CamelONE, we provide a suite of services that helps address these challenges. Users can select these services according to their business needs, to overcome trade barriers and complex trade rules.

For example, they can get freight forwarding service by stating their requirements and following a simple process, without needing to understand how the convoluted process works exactly. Same goes for other complex tasks such as permit preparation, preparation and submission of Certificate of Origin (CO), etc. And since CamelONE is a cloud-based solution, users enjoy the benefit of having constant technological refresh whenever new functions and technologies are added to CamelONE.

Moving forward, what is your company’s vision?

Looking ahead, we can confidently say that VCC is going to disrupt and transform the trade and logistics industry through digitalization,to simplify global trade. This is what we set out to do when we started VCC. Deployed in over 16 countries, our CamelONE has helped blur and overcome the geographical, digital and trade boundaries amongst countries. Our work is being recognized all around the world and we hope that our work makes trade and logistics processes even easier, for even more people, in time to come.

Founder’s Corner

Desmond Tay, Co-Founder and CEO           

Under his leadership, VCC has been one of the fastest growing companies on a global stage. His vision has helped the company make a landfall in South East Asia, China, Central Asia, Russia, and Africa.

Prior to VCC, he was the Managing Director at Visiflex Pte Ltd and BizLabs Pte Ltd. He played an instrumental role in these companies by driving their strategic business plans and partnerships. His previous appointments include Director of Technology at Genii Incorporated Pte Ltd and Vice President of Technology at 3rd Frontier Pte Ltd. He started his career as a software engineer at CrimsonLogic and Advanced Systems Automation.

A seasoned industry veteran, he pioneered the implementation of the e-freight@Singaporesolution for Singapore. He had led the industry in adopting innovative technologies, including the implementation of the World’s first electronic Certificate of Origin Solution using Blockchain. Mr. Tay is also a member of the United Nation’s ESCAP Digital Economy Task Force.
“Founded in 2013, VCC is one of the fastest-growing tech companies in Singapore, with offices strategically located in China, Indonesia and Kenya.”

“We are bold in our innovation, giving us the competitive advantage over our competitors, keeping us ahead of the game.”

Source: http://www.ciobulletin.com/magazine/vcargo-cloud-leading-e-trade-and-logistics-solution-provider