‘Excessive red tape on both sides is the factor preventing the efficient cooperation between Italy and Russia on the whole and Italy and Sverdlovsk Region in particular. We really need to cut down on the bureaucracy, and customs is one important place to start. This certainly isn’t a kind of problem that can be solved quickly, but it keeps dragging on for twenty years now. Every time we are told that the issue is just about to be settled, but when a new piece of legislation comes into effect, things only turn out to get even worse,’ President of the Italian Russian Association, an association of Italian entrepreneurs in Russia, Vittorio Torrembini said at a business forum on Russia and Italy’s interregional cooperation in Yekaterinburg.

Meanwhile, a cooperation agreement between Sverdlovsk Region and ZAO Bank Intesa has already been signed at the forum by Governor Alexander Misharin and the bank’s BOD Chairman Antonio Fallico.

‘When Russia was only about to enter the Customs Union, we were told the customs control would get much easier; in fact, the situation grew even more intolerable. The requirements and cavil became simply unbelievable. I ended up having to create the most detailed form-filling instructions for my Italian partners, in Italian on top of it all. If one makes a two-cent mistake in the calculations, the officials will see it as creative accounting and will impose a fine of 100% to 300% of the product’s cost on the entrepreneur,’ General Director of OOO Orocreato Sergey Denisov complained.