Five years ago, Seppo Remes was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the European Business Club. Today, with more than 400 companies as members, it is the single largest European business association representing a wide range of interests in Russia. His passion is engineering knowledge and information-sharing between the EU and Russians to help Russia enact better laws and systems.

How did the idea to set up the European Business Club (EBC) originate?

It was due to the experience of Korea, where they have had this kind of European business club for a number of years. Then we just formed a group to discuss it in 1995 and then started the Club, initially just a few people, a Frenchman, an Italian, a German and I, and we just sat together and thought it was a good idea.

We were not happy with the situation because we had been working with our national business clubs and realized that this clearly was not enough, particularly in terms of providing information and lobbying.
It reflected what was happening in Europe at the time, with further integration. We arranged some meetings, and then registered as a non-commercial organization. The most difficult thing was to work out how to organize ourselves, but we did it.

Finland is a small member of the EU, compared to Germany or France, which have been the main drivers of EU integration. Did it help that you are from Finland?

Yes, it helped being from a small, neutral country, and everyone knows that Finns have a long history of working with the Soviet Union and Russians.

I think everything changed in 1998, with the crisis, when we had about 150 members. We were all drawn together because we faced so many difficulties. If, before that, we could resolve issues by national channels, after that it was clear that this could not be done at all. We decide to lobby for common interests.

You mentioned lobbying. What issues have you been lobbying for?

The issues have been more or less the same for a long time, but lately they have been changing. It was tax, number one. Deregulation, customs, production agreements...

And have you been able to talk to ministers and the Kremlin on these issues?

Yes. We have a board, with one member from each EU country, but the board is not really the key to understanding our structure. We have 25 committees on different questions such as taxation and customs, and some 20 of these committees worked actively, lobbying the Ministries directly.

We have an office where 15 to 20 people work, and they help the committees draft letters and so forth, organize meetings with the Ministries, etc. Also, we have different kinds of channels; for example, we have had bimonthly meetings with [Deputy Prime Minister] Viktor Khristenko. So, we suggest some issues and prepare papers to which he reacted. We have also worked with Minister for Economic Trade and Development German] Gref and the Finance Ministry.

What have your main achievements been?

It’s hard to say, but taxation has to be the main thing. We did a lot of work on this, as we have an excellent tax committee that really had good contacts with the Ministry and we had good input. But, in this kind of work, which goes on and on and involves lots of people, it’s very hard to judge the contribution of individuals or organizations to the final result.

Also, with customs issues. They have introduced a much simpler system now and have cut gray imports, so now there is more fair competition. And deregulation has gotten better. There used to be 2,500 activities that had to be licensed — now there are only 104.

The Americans also have a strong chamber — AmCham in Moscow. Do you get equal treatment from Russian ministers?

I certainly believe that we are better. The strong areas are related to trade issues, customs, certification, also taxation. Americans are quite good on issues related to finance and marketing.

One thing we have been doing is organizing "Invest in Russia" road shows in European capitals like Berlin and Paris. We invite Russian authorities and European business people, to discuss what is really happening in the economy there. We got around 350 people to the conference in Berlin and it received very good publicity. We helped improve Russia’s image, and this is important — if Russia’s ratings improve, the money we can raise for investments will be much higher.

You come into contact with a lot of top European businesspeople. What are the main topics they bring up with you regarding problems with human resources in Russia?

In Russia, you have a lot of good people available — it’s one of the nation’s best resources today. It’s been said by executives, and I remember three years ago when ABB’s chief executive officer, Percy Barnaby, said that this was one of the directions for Russia to go in — develop its intellectual capital. And this was from a big power company, where you would think maybe this was not a place where you would hear such things.

But there has been a decline in quality of education over the last 10 years…

Of course the educational system is suffering, but the important thing is the character of the people in general. There is a misperception that Russians are lazy and unreliable and things like that, but this is not true. In fact, it’s absolutely the opposite.

It’s so true that Russians have adapted well. In places where there is good management, particularly in places where customer service is essential, like restaurants — it is better than in Europe. In human resources, this country just needs good management and then everything is fine.

I heard one story about recruitment offices that invite young people to the West for training for a few months. The Russians they invited were by far the best. They have one fault, which is that they are too competitive and go all-out to beat each other. They are extremely tough, so teamwork does not always come naturally.

Where are most of your members from?

Great Britain, and then France and Germany. Then there’s the next group in Finland, and then others. We have about 450 members. But we don’t have Russian members.

Of those 450, how many manufacture in Russia, or intend to, as opposed to just selling here?

I think 30 to 40 percent are service companies, so this is not really relevant to them, and of the rest, I think about half or more are interested in manufacturing locally. In fact, I think about a third of our members have some form of production in Russia already, and this is increasing steadily. All those firms are even planning to export to the C.I.S. and Europe, and I think that in five years many will be exporting to Europe.

You were an academic, writing books — and now are leading a whole European business association in Russia? Would you see yourself more as a professional now, or still as an academic?

I wouldn’t say I was a careerist. I’m a combination of an academic and some kind of organizer, too much interested in other things. The EBC is very interesting and this is what makes my quality of life better — I can do things here I couldn’t do anywhere else. Maybe I can change something for the better.