UK-Russia Closed Nuclear Cities Partnership

Jonathan Perks, CNCP Commercial Partnership Specialist

CNCP is helping to form commercial relationships between organisations in Russian closed cities and British companies.

There are many obstacles to overcome, but we judge the risks are worth taking, because investment and trading partnerships will allow the links between Russian closed cities and Britain to continue indefinitely.

Sooner or later G8 and national government priorities will change and CNCP will be discontinued. When that happens, we want the jobs, the new businesses and the mutual benefits and understanding from our joint work to continue strengthening. One way to ensure this is by creating joint ventures and trading relationships that will endure because they make commercial sense for all partners involved.

So, we are working to improve awareness of the partnership opportunities offered between British and closed city firms, clarifying and mitigating the risks and facilitating the partnership formation. In this way the large pool of low cost, technical talent available in the secure environment of closed cities, together with western capital, contacts and know-how, can be applied to high technology production and R&D for both western and Russian markets. The risks include communication and access difficulties, along with the physical remoteness of the cities from markets.

Successful partnerships must create a clear, sustainable, competitive advantage, which is truly greater than either partner can create alone. For example, one partner might provide special skills, technology or intellectual property, while the other provides privileged access to a growing market. To identify such partnership opportunities, we have facilitated face-to-face dialogue between potential partners through a Technology Roadshow to the UK, two study tours and software-related discussions in Moscow. We have helped to initiate collaborative projects in a number of areas where we feel partnerships with closed cities can create competitive advantage. These include:

A manufacturing joint venture for measuring and calibration equipment.
A sales agent for titanium products.
An R&D and production collaboration in lifting devices for less mobile people.
Development, sales and distribution of prosthetic devices.
Manufacture of intra-ocular lenses.
Sales of speciality gases and isotopes.
Manufacture of more efficient nuclear fuel.
High performance battery component development.

Where necessary, we are helping to reduce early stage risks by providing grant support and practical help with market research and business planning. Current relationships are at an early stage and commercially sensitive, yet we are working towards sales and investment during the current financial year.

For more information about opportunities for commercial partnerships in the Closed Cities, please contact, Jonathan Perks, cncp@cncp.ru.

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