Russia Business

Chamber of Commerce and Industry

History

The history of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russian Federation dates back to the 19th century, when manufacturers and commercial boards, societies for support of trade and manufacturing, mercantile and stock exchange boards started springing up across Russia. The reform initiated in the 1860s when the abolition of serfdom gave a new face to local and municipal government bodies and put privileges exercised previously by the merchant class with enough money to buy them in 1861.
Industrial upsurge gave an extra importance to the mercantile exchange as a marketplace in the late of 19th century. Under the laws, the exchange was more than just a marketplace. This term was also applied to the community of people trading on the exchange. The exchange was supervised by elective management bodies that were, in addition performing administrative functions. It also had powers to advance empowered to advance the interests of the merchants and industrialists class and to protect the interests of the exchange community in its relationships with the government and public institutions.

The Northwestern Regional Chamber of Commerce was Russia's first Chamber of Commerce, which was established in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1921. A Russian-Eastern Chamber was set up in Moscow in 1922. On May 28, 1932, they were merged into the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, which was bound by its Charter to assist enterprises in developing domestic trade. The All-Union Chamber of Commerce was given the status of a non-governmental organization and the right to act. In the framework of civil law, when an independent legal entity voluntarily joined enterprises. They pursued the objectives set out in the Chamber's Charter. The list of its objectives included promotion of business ties with international commercial and other business organizations with chambers of commerce, exporting companies, exchanges, exhibition authorities, museums and participation in international congresses of chambers of commerce. It also included arrangement for Soviet delegations to attendance to the international exhibitions and conferences; and promotion of Soviet goods in other countries.

In 1972, the All-Union Chamber of Commerce was transformed into the USSR Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), and it got the status of a national and republican agency. After that republican chambers of commerce and industry were established in 14 republics of the U.S.S.R. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the U.S.S.R. was a legal entity that owned property and exercised all rights associated with that legal status. The Arbitration Court, the Maritime Arbitration Commission, and the Association of Average Adjusters CCI was set up by CCI of the U.S.S.R.
In 1988, a CCI Congress adopted decisions to improve the organizational structure of Chamber management. Those major organizational decisions laid the foundations for expanding the republican and regional system of chambers of commerce and industry in the Russian Federation. Branches of the Chamber were closed around the country and independent chambers were set up. A constituent congress of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was convened in 1991. Regional chambers were given full independence within the framework of the new chamber system and right to join the Chamber and delegate some of their responsibilities to the Chamber on a completely free basis.

In 1993, a new legal organizational model was elaborated for chambers of commerce and industry, following to the Russian President's decree, «The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation».

The presidential decree was significantly expanded and developed into a legislative proposal that was passed by the nation's parliament as a law «On Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the Russian Federation». The aims and objects of the Chamber included protecting entrepreneurs' business interests, promoting interaction between entrepreneurs and the government authorities, encouraging development of an educational system to train business managers, and mediating in disputes arising between businesses and entrepreneurs.

An extraordinary congress was held by the Chamber in Moscow on December 14, 2001, to elect Yevgeny Primakov as its president. The Chamber's governing bodies were overhauled in 2002, and in June of that year, when the Chamber convened for its Fourth Congress, a new Board was elected to conform to the existing configuration of national business and its nongovernmental organizations, and its Charter was amended accordingly. The Chamber applied a new approach to its basic objectives and revised the principles on which its relations with territorial chambers are built.