On the 9th of February 2010 there was held the second NRCC Networking Meeting in St. Petersburg. The meeting took place in the facilities of NRCC Member Company, Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in St. Petersburg. Close to 50 people registered for the event, hereunder several guests invited to be better introduced to the activities of NRCC members and NRCC itself.

First speaker, Head of Industrial Relations and Procurement of Statoil, Mr Benedikt Henriksen presented to the audience the activities of Statoil in Russia. This was the first presentation of NRCC main sponsor in St. Petersburg. Further, Senior Vice President of Norwegian Export Credit Agency Eksportfinans ASA, Mrs Tatiana Budkova informed about the present opportunities for Norwegian and Russian companies as viewed by Eksportfinans. At the moment, Eksportfinans is financing quite a few contracts going on within fisheries and transport, but they are ready to offer credits to new Russian clients in other sectors who wish to import Norwegian equipment to Russia.

Conducting business between the two countries requires knowledge of the two countries' culture. Therefore, the next presentation given by Information Director of the NRCC, Mrs Katerina Smetanina, contained a brief and sometimes informal overview over Norwegian and Norwegian soul as seen by Russian eyes.

As always, there were also presentations of NRCC member companies. Station Manager of Det Norske Veritas in St. Petersburg, Mr Kirill Musteykis presented the multifaceted activities of DNV in Russia, while General Manager of Sparebanken Nord Norge (SNN) Mr Helge Fredeng informed about the status in SNN's plans to develop further activities in the North-West Russia via Tavrichesky Bank partly owned by SNN.

Summing up, Managing Director of the NRCC Mr Jarle Forbord gave a brief overview over status in the Norwegian-Russian bilateral trade which last year suffered a considerable fall in the Russian export to Norway and underlined the importance of diversification of the trade. At the end of the meeting, participants were invited to a networking and refreshments session.

The NRCC would like to thank Radisson SAS Royal Hotel which kindly sponsored the conference facilities for the meeting.

Head of Industrial Relations and Procurement of Statoil ASA, Mr Benedikt Henriksen	General Manager of Sparebanken Nord Norge (SNN) Mr Helge Fredeng

Senior Vice President of Norwegian Export Credit Agency Eksportfinans ASA, Mrs Tatiana Budkova	Station Manager of Det Norske Veritas in St. Petersburg, Mr Kirill Musteykis