On 15 November 2017 the top managers from major companies shared their export success stories before the representatives of St Petersburg SME-finalists in the Exporter of the Year contest. The GS Group director for strategic projects and communications, Andrey Bezrukov, took part in a motivational session entitled Non-resource exports: success stories. The speaker shared the group's experience of exporting, and explained which factors had helped it to attain a leading position in foreign markets.
In presenting the success story of GS Group's exports, the director for strategic projects and communications, Andrey Bezrukov said that the group had been exporting its own technological solutions and products to the world market for a number of years. "GS Group is most evidently represented in Asia: our software and systems developments in the area of digital TV are used in broadcasting projects in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar and other countries. The Asian markets are interesting for the future development of our exports, because the tradition of the whole family gathering together round the television set is still strong in these countries. And this culture of family television viewing will continue to be current for many years to come, since the penetration of television is still not very great there," noted Andrey Bezrukov.
The Vice-Governor of St Petersburg, Sergei Movchan, highly values the export activity of Russian businesses, the products and services of which have made noticeable gains on foreign markets: "All credit is due to those who have broken into the internal markets of other countries. This means that we have not only oil and other mineral wealth, but also other goods and services which are in demand abroad". Sergei Movchan thanked those who involved in the motivational session — the standard bearers in their industries — for their work in developing exports and their willingness to share their experience.
Andrey Bezrukov spoke of the competitive advantages of GS Group which had helped it to attain such good results in the area of technological export.
Andrey Bezrukov GS Group director for strategic projects and communications
«We have developed and manufacture high-tech products: micro-electronics, electronics for digital TV, and software solutions. Our key competitive advantage, particularly in the current political context and competitive environment, is that we localise our centres of competence in Russia. We have long maintained this strategy, well before the current international situation came about, and it has helped us enormously from the point of view of keeping and developing our skills».
Also the export of any high-tech solutions required that technological platforms and their related "eco-systems" be constructed. Simply exporting is not enough - direct investment in projects is required in those territories to which the company is exporting its solutions. This, in the speaker's opinion, comprises the main difficulty when working in foreign markets.
Other participants in the motivational session Non-resource exports: success stories included the Commercial Director of the pharmaceutical development company Polisan LLC (under the Russian legislation), Dmitri Borisov, the Managing Director of Red Fox, Alexander Glushkovsky, the General Producer of GK Riki, the President of the Russian Association of Animated Films Ilya Popov, and the restaurateur Aram Mnatsakanov. The event took place at the finals of the annual Exporter of the Year context for SMEs in St Petersburg.
Photos from the official site of the Regional Integrated Center - St. Petersburg.