Judging by the number of events held at the WTC, the Russian business community and government value it as an important venue for dialogue. Yes, businessmen and authorities often meet at the WTC to discuss problems crucial for the national economic development and society. One of the WTC’s largest and most widely used venues is the Mercury Club, chaired by Yevgeny Primakov, president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the largest beneficiary of the WTC. High-level politicians, important businessmen, prominent scientists, governors, and ambassadors accredited in Moscow attend the Club’s meetings.
The Mercury Club events are usually accompanied by presentations of regional investment possibilities, which is a wise policy because potential investors usually attend these events. Information about the results of such meetings is forwarded to the country’s decision-making centres, so that many of the government’s economic resolutions take into account the proposals that are first voiced during the Club’s meetings.
As a rule, we have several major Russian and international events every week, including exhibitions, seminars and conferences.
How many of them have been held since the opening of the WTC? Over 9,000, including top-level ones. We house offices of over 500 Russian and foreign companies, but leasing premises is not our main goal. We promote congresses and exhibitions designed to enhance the level of dialogue between business and the authorities.
Our congress centre has 28 halls and discussion rooms as well as congress and conference rooms, seating 3,500. Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, the current president of Russia, have addressed audiences in them. We have welcomed foreign presidents, prime ministers and ministers, members of the Russian parliament’s two houses, and top international politicians such as Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger and Helmut Schmidt. Preliminary meetings of the G8 and APEC have been held at the centre, and the host city of the 2008 Olympics was selected here.
We are proud that the centre was the venue where the international community searched for solutions to economic problems, terrorism and other challenges. We have welcomed not only political dignitaries. Manchester United, which recently played against Chelsea in Moscow, stayed at our hotel, Crowne Plaza.
But you have rivals in Moscow now, don’t you? Competition is what drives business development. However, theWTC remains the only Moscow business centre that provides such a wide range of services, more than 500, as well as established traditions. As the first such centre in the Soviet Union, the WTC in Krasnaya Presnya was built to international standards at the initiative of US businessman Armand Hammer in the 1970s. Since its opening day, it has maintained top standards, as befits all such world-class centres. Given equal conditions and tough competition, the standards of service often become crucial for success. Every year all WTC employees, from security guards to section heads, attend a series of customer service seminars conducted by John Tschohl, a customer service strategist with over 22 years of customer service experience.
Our policy is not to stint funds on improving customer services, and this is why many of our customers have been staying with us for decades. What better proof of success can you offer?
We are also expanding. At present, the WTC has floor space of 200,000 square metres and parking lots for 1,300 cars. We are building a second group of buildings. It will comprise a 29-storey A Class office tower with floor space of 33,000 sqm and a parking lot for 700 cars, and a 20-storey hotel with cosy club-class rooms for business clients. This year we will reconstruct, modernise and retool our congress centre, which will become the most modern in Russia. We recently welcomed diplomats from 36 countries of Europe, Asia and Africa accredited in Moscow. We showed them around and it seems they were impressed. I don’t think their kind words were mere politeness.
They say you have expanded beyond the WTC’s limits. Have you? This is a separate subject. To make a long story short, we plan to build additional office and hotel premises in the area where WTC’s Soyuz hotel stands. We have a plot of land in downtown Moscow where we intend to build one more office and hotel centre. We also plan to invest in the establishment of a technology park in Moscow and to contribute to the construction of an international congress and exhibition centre and a spa resort in southern Russia.
Valery Serov Born April 15, 1940 inMoscow, graduated from the Moscow Construction Engineering Institute (1962).
Deputy chairman of the Soviet Union’s Planning Committee for capital construction (1985-1988) and chairman of the State Planning Committee (1988-1991).
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was Minister for CIS Affairs and a deputy prime minister.
At present, he is director general of the World Trade Centre, chairman of the committee for economic cooperation with SCO and CIS countries at Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and president of the International Builders’ Union.
The WTC address: 123610 Moscow, Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya 12.
Telephone: +7 (495) 258-1212.
http://www.wtcmoscow.ru
