Russia and the United Kingdom:

School #1908

Project

RUSSIA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM:

THE VECTORS OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION

VoloKHOV ALEXANDER

ANDRUSHENKO VICTORIA

Form 11

Project supervisor

Lushova i.v.

Moscow, 2015

contest

aimEs & PROBLEMS TO SOLVE 1

theses 2

get a ticket to your future (BY OUR CLASSMATE MOROZOVA DARIA ESPECIALLY FOR OUR PROJECT) 4

HISTORICAL reference 5

What does economy mean? 6

Economic development in Russia 7

The UK economy 8

A special bank system 10

-classic card 11

- silver card 12

-gold card 13

What makes our cards unique? 14

Resume 15

literature 16

Aims:

1) to know our modern world with all its details better and make an acquaintance with different cultures

2) to develop our language skills and show them in oral speech

3) to learn more interesting facts about the history of countries of The English-Speaking World

4) to make a fantastic trip abroad with our friends and achieve all the goals which we mentioned above

Problems to solve:

1) to look through the Internet or other sources in order to elucidate Russian and British economics

2) to find the best way of solving the problem of economic cooperation between Russia and the UK

3) to invent an exclusive bank system with its own credit cards which will help people from Russia and the UK to use online shops more easily

Theses

Russia and Britain have been economic partners for hundreds of years. The first ambassadors appeared in Moscow during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The history of the partnership between our countries is great and full of events. There is no doubt, that Russia and Great Britain have already influenced worldwide economy since the date we would like to focus on, namely since 1991, the last decade of the 20th century.

But before we start, let’s analyze what economy itself means. An economy or economic system consists of the production, distribution or trade, and consumption of limited goods and services by different agents in a given geographical location. The economic agents can be individuals, businesses, organizations, or governments. Transactions occur when two parties agree to the value or price of the transacted goods or services, commonly expressed in a certain currency.

Talking about the economy of Russia, we have to point out that it is a high-income mixed economy with state ownership in strategic areas of the economy. Market reforms of the 1990s privatized much of Russian industry and agriculture, with notable exceptions in the energy and defense-related sectors.

Russia is unusual among the major economies in the way it relies on energy revenues to drive growth. The country has an abundance of natural resources, including oil, natural gas and precious metals, which make up a major share of Russia's exports. As of 2012 oil and gas sector accounted for 16% of the GDP, 52% of federal budget revenues and over 70% of total exports.

On the other hand, The United Kingdom has the 6th-largest national economy in the world (and 3rd-largest in Europe) measured by nominal GDP and 8th-largest in the world (and 2nd-largest in Europe) measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). The UK economy comprises (in descending order of size) the economies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 2013 the UK was the 4th-largest exporter in the world and the 4th-largest importer, and had the 2nd-largest stock of inward foreign direct investment and the 2nd-largest stock of outward foreign direct investment. The UK is one of the world's most globalized economies.

These two economic systems are really different, but our main aim is to find the conformity that will help people in Russia and Britain to live without the trade crisis.

The largest industry of the UK is agriculture. Exactly, it is foodstuff. Exports to Russia have been grown up since 2000 for 220%. Mechanical engineering, medical facilities, transport and space development also illustrate Russian interests of the UK.

Russia is producing mineral fuels, chemical production, textiles and metal for the habitants of the foggy Albion. Nowadays, it has become very popular among Russians to visit London, Manchester and other famous cities. This factor has grown up for 20%.

Nowadays the problem of economic cooperation between Russia and the UK stands strong. In our opinion, we have found the best way of solving it. Our plan is to make a united credit card system and an indivisible bank which will make the life of the Russians and the British easier.

Get a ticket to your future

If you want to know our modern world better with all its details and make an acquaintance with different cultures, the contest «Unity in Diversity» gives you a great opportunity for that. Due to this competition you can learn foreign culture and compare it with Russian. It is also a great chance to develop and show your language skills and show them. «Unity in Diversity» will help everyone to broaden the outlook, to learn more interesting facts about the history of countries of The English-Speaking World. So, you can make a fantastic trip abroad with your friends and achieve all the goals which I mentioned above.

As for our group, it consists of school but advanced teenagers who are interested in modern life. We decided to explore the topic which is very relevant and actual today in such a difficult economic situation. Our group wants to learn economic relationship between two great and powerful countries – the United Kingdom and Russia. Nowadays this question is considered to be really contradictive. Economic relationship between these two countries causes much debate and lots of discussions. We want to emphasize that Russian and British cultures have been closely interlacing with each other for many centuries. It concerns not only literature or science but also our partnership in economic sphere, the vectors of trade. Talking about our choice of the topic, I should mention that this year we have started to learn economics at school. It had an influence on our choice. Firstly, this subject seemed rather boring and confusing to us, but then we understood how it could be useful and fascinating. The topic of Russian and British trade appealed to us. We can learn the economics deeper and connect it with learning English. In our opinion, it is a great pleasure and enjoyment. Maybe our choice can seem strange for such young people but our group is not the only one who is keen on economics and English at the same time. Many young people share our interest and highlight the necessity of combining these two subjects in the modern world. Many of them say they want to study international economics at university that is why doing such a project can be a very valuable experience. Some other people noticed that economics and English are the most important subjects nowadays because the knowledge of language gives you lots of opportunities and economics is the main sphere of our life.

So, the contest «Unity in Diversity» helps to develop yourself and deepen your knowledge in definite spheres. During your research you can spend time with your friends, learn many new and interesting facts about Russian and Britain culture, history and improve your language skills. We have an opportunity to connect education with entertainment and it is really great. This competition will be an unforgettable and valuable experience for everyone.

Morozova Daria

RUSSIA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM: THE VECTORS OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION

HISTORICAL REFERENCE

The history of relationship between England and Russia is estimated 460 years. The diplomatic and economic relations were established during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible, when the expedition of Richard Chancellor arrived in Moscow looking for a northeastern route to China and Asia. In 1555 the trading Moscow Company was set up, the chambers were built in Kitai-Gorod, where English laws exclusively operated. The tsars Ivan the Terrible, and then Boris Godunov favoured the sons of the British Isles. They granted tangible preferences for English merchants, heartly invited to service doctors, pharmacists, soldiers and craftsmen. They created the most favourable living and working conditions for them in Moscow. Then, during the first half of the XIX century a dynamic but quite rough process of negotiation relations (diplomatic, cultural and commercial) between two great European powers – Russia and Great Britain was going on. Besides, the condition of intergovernmental relations has always had a serious impact on formation of the dialogue of cultures. The joint victory over Napoleon was important to Great Britain. And this has increased Englishmen’s interest in Russia and Russians. With the increased interest in Russia as a diplomatic partner, Englishmen started to establish trade turnover and got interested in Russian’s economy.

But before we start our investigation, let’s analyze what economy means.

What does economy mean?

An economy or economic system consists of the production, distribution or trade, and consumption of limited goods and services by different agents in a given geographical location. The economic agents can be individuals, businesses, organizations, or governments. Transactions occur when two parties agree to the value or price of the transacted good or service, commonly expressed in a certain currency.

In the past, economic activity was theorized to be bounded by natural resources, labor, and capital. This view ignores the value of technology (automation, accelerator of process, reduction of cost functions), and innovation (new products, services, processes, new markets, expands markets, diversification of markets, niche markets, increases revenue functions), especially that which produces intellectual property.

Today the range of fields of study examining the economy revolve around the social science of economics, but may include sociology (economic sociology), history (economic history), anthropology (economic anthropology), and geography (economic geography). Practical fields directly related to the human activities involving production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services as a whole, are engineering, management, business administration, applied science and finance.

Speaking of trading interaction between the two countries (Russia and the UK), we should certainly take note of the economy of each country individually.

Firstly, we would like to draw attention to the peculiarities of economic development in Russia.

Economic development in Russia

More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia is now trying to develop market economy further and achieve more consistent economic growth. Russia saw its comparatively developed centrally planned economy contract severely for five years, as the executive and the legislature dithered over the implementation of reforms and Russia's aging industrial base faced a serious decline.

After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's first slight recovery, showing signs of open-market influence, occurred in 1997. That year, however, the Asian financial crisis culminated in the August depreciation of the ruble. This was followed by a debt default by the government in 1998, and a sharp deterioration in living standards for most of the population. Consequently, 1998 was marked by recession and an intense capital flight.

Nevertheless, the economy started recovering in 1999. The recovery was greatly assisted by the weak ruble, which made imports expensive and boosted local production. Then it entered a phase of rapid economic expansion, the GDP growing by an average of 6.7% annually in 1999-2005 on the back of higher petroleum prices, a weaker ruble, and increasing service production and industrial output. The country is presently running a huge trade surplus, which has been helped by protective import barriers, and rampant corruption which ensures that it is almost impossible for foreign and local SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) to import goods without the help of local specialist import firms, such as the Russia Import Company. Some import barriers are expected to be abolished after Russia's accession to the WTO in 2006.

The recent recovery, made possible due to high world oil prices, along with a renewed government effort in 2000 and 2001 to advance lagging structural reforms, has raised business and investor confidence over Russia's prospects in its second decade of transition. Russia remains heavily dependent on exports of commodities, particularly oil, natural gas, metals, and timber, which account for about 80% of exports, leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices. In recent years, however, the economy has also been driven by growing internal consumer demand that has increased by over 12% annually in 2000-2005, showing the strengthening of its own internal market.

The UK economy

In its turn, the UK economy also has its trends. So, now we would like to point out its general distinctive features.

The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven: the Moscow region contributes one-third of the country's GDP while having only a tenth of its population. GDP increased by 7.2% in 2004 and 6.4% in 2005.

The United Kingdom has the 6th-largest national economy in the world (and 3rd-largest in Europe) measured by nominal GDP and 8th-largest in the world (and 2nd-largest in Europe) measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). The UK economy comprises (in descending order of size) the economies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 2013 the UK was the 4th-largest exporter in the world and the 4th-largest importer, and had the 2nd-largest stock of inward foreign direct investment and the 2nd-largest stock of outward foreign direct investment. The UK is one of the world's most globalized economies.

The service sector dominates the UK economy, contributing around 78% of GDP; the financial services industry is particularly important and London is the world's largest financial centre. The British aerospace industry is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry depending on the method of measurement. The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the economy and the UK has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D. The automotive industry is also a major employer and exporter. The British economy is boosted by North Sea oil and gas production; its reserves were valued at an estimated £250 billion in 2007. There are significant regional variations in prosperity, with the South East of England and southern Scotland the richest areas per capita. London has the largest city GDP in Europe.

Britain is still along with its neighbours in Western Europe, one of the wealthiest places in the world. The empire has gone, the great manufacturing industries have gone, but London is still one of the centres of the financial world.

The currency of Britain is the pound sterling, which symbol is «£», always written before the specified amount. Informally, a pound is sometimes called a «quid», so £20 might be expressed as «twenty quid». There are 100 pence in a pound.

Before 1971, Britain used the «LSD» system. There were 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. Amounts were written like this: £3 12s 6d (three pounds, twelve shillings, and six pence).

People were not enthusiastic about the change to what they called «new money». For a long time afterwards, the question «What’s that in old money?» was used to imply that what somebody had just said was too complicated to be clear. In fact, money provides frequent opportunities for British conservatism to show itself. When the one pound coin was introduced in 1983, it was very unpopular. People said they were sad to see the end of the pound note and that a mere coin didn’t seem to be worth as much. Another example is the reaction to the Euro. Since 1991, this has had the same status in Britain as Scottish banknotes in England. But most shops do not accept them.

A special bank system

In order to make economic situation between Russia and Great Britain more affable we would like to present a special bank system that is devoted to make the life of the Russians and the British easier. Nowadays everybody surfs the Internet for searching different goods. There are a lot of shops online that offer purchasers high-quality products for the best price, but we forget about one important thing. It is taxes. Moreover, the prices of shipping and duties are too high. We cannot allow ourselves to click ‘checkout’ due to this kind of cheating. That’s why the best way of overcoming this problem is our brand new bank system that we are going to present right now!

Credit cards have made shopping much easier for millions of people. With a credit card, you don’t have to carry lots of cash with you when you are going shopping. You just need to take one plastic card with you.

First of all you have to choose for yourself which kind of credit card you would like to have (Classic, Silver and Gold).

If you are only going to buy clothes, books,

cosmetics, etc. online, classic card is for you.

Debit card for young and active people who prefer online shopping and account control.

A card with an individual design.

Discounts and special offers from Visa and MasterCard payment systems

Electronic chip protected cards

Service fee — RUB 150 per year

Payment system: Visa

Currency of card account: RUB/POUNDS

Card effective period: 3 years

Service fee: RUB 150 per year

Electronic chip protection: yes

Issue of additional bank cards: no

Overdraft limit: no

If you are going not only to buy things but also to save up bonuses which will be accumulated after every shopping - silver card is for you. Besides, you can spend these bonuses with next shopping in every shop, which is in our alliance. It is kind of discount.

Silver international bank cards offer a whole range of services and a low service fee.

Service fee — RUB 750 per year.

Discounts and special offers from Visa.

Issue of additional bank cards.

Card issue within a salary project.

Requirements for the customer:

a citizen of the Russian Federation/ The UK;

above 18 year-olds — for the main card (for Electron/Maestro — above 14 year-olds) and above 10 year-olds — for additional cards (with consent of a legal representative).

And finally, if you want to be a member of our VIP club, which gives you an admission to luxuries, gold card is for you. Free shipping, 30% discount for every shopping, double bonuses to our privilege club. It will be yours! Stop thinking! Just phone us and feel yourself a billionaire!

Premium cards offer an excellent level of services, an extended range of services and favourable offers and discounts.

Account currency: RUB, USD, EUR, POUNDS

Discounts and privileges from Visa and MasterCard payment systems

Issue of additional bank cards

Card issue within a salary project

Payment system: Visa

Card effective period: 3 years

Service fee: RUB 3000 per year

Electronic chip protection: yes

Issue of additional bank cards: yes

Overdraft limit: no

What makes our cards unique?

Services

Account management and money transfer via Mobile Bank.

Discounts and special offers from Russian-British bank partners.

Discount and privilege programmes from Visa (www.visa.com.ru).

Emergency cash withdrawal in case of card loss abroad.

Autopayment

Secure online transactions

Cashless transfer (debiting, transfer) via ATMs and self-service terminals.

Available card transactions

Cashless payment for goods and services both in Russia and abroad.

Online payment for goods and services.

Cash withdrawal via ATMs both in Russia and abroad.

Payment transactions using bank card details (by e-mail or on the phone)

Card account replenishment by cash or cashless settlement (transfer to a card)

Linking the card to Paypal, Qiwi etc.

resume

Thus, the economic relations between Russia and Britain are one of the most relevant topics nowadays.

Russian-British relations have a long history, and have the legal and institutional framework. Trade and investment have been actively developing between Russia and Britain. But at the same time Russia is not a major trade and investment partner for the UK. However, there are a lot of factors which can positively influence the future of Russian-British cooperation.

Britain has always attracted the attention of the citizens of Russia. Now the normalization of bilateral political dialogue has acquired options for sustainable trend. Our relations are developing steadily, rapidly and in the right direction, in the mutual interests of Russia and the UK.

literature

James O’Driscoll «Britain for Learners of English», second edition, Oxford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia

http://www.ved.gov.ru/eng/general/economy/

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04