In early December's Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed creating an office for implementing large-scale economic projects, including facilitating Russian producers to reach global markets via Internet-based platforms.
Planned as a Russian counterpart to the Chinese Alibaba Group, the project is set to task the Russian Export Center with choosing a Russian e-commerce retail aggregator, such as Yandex.Market, Ulmart or Wikimart, to provide Russian producers with an account for receiving orders from abroad, according to the publication.
Russian exporters are planned to be provided with insurance and guarantees by the Export Insurance Agency of Russia (EXIAR), as well as credit for an insurance fund by Eximbank, which is set to come under Russian Export Center control. The latter is required for settling potential disputes with foreign buyers, while exporters will be exempt from direct involvement in the disputes, the newspaper added.
E-commerce has been on the rise in Russia, increasing 16 percent and hitting the $10 billion mark in 2015, according to the East-West Digital News agency research. Imports have so far dominated in cross-border transactions, mainly involving Chinese retailers.
