The rules of the Chinese-style import substitution game.

Vladimir Dzaguto, the editor of business department, studies the rules of the Chinese-style import substitution game.

Some time ago, when there were discussions on the liberalization of the liquefied natural gas exports market , one of the main arguments of the opponents of this idea was that Russian companies will compete abroad with each other and, for example, hurt the prices. It must be agreed that the argument was quite strong: along with the status of a nuclear power the energy exports are a key advantage in the international arena, the risk here is short-sighted. At least from the point of view of the state companies, that must carefully compete with each other.

The gas issue was somehow resolved (or, more precisely, not resolved – the high contracting parties quietly hushed it up). But some similar situation recently happened in the electricity exports to the Far East: the number of large Russian companies, who announced the plans for the supply of kilowatt-hours in China, or even Japan, steadily grew. Most of our energy workers ("RusHydro", "Inter RAO", "Evrosibenergo" and other smaller companies) are attracted to the northeast China: it seems that we only need to put a turbine on the bank of the Amur, throw the wire across the river, and clip coupons from Chinese energy market.