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AfroCom (Coordinating Committee for economic cooperation with the countries of Africa south of the Sahara) is Russian nongovernmental, non profit organization focusing on strengthening commercial relationships between the Russian Federation and the African countries and promoting Russia's economic interests in Africa and support of foreign economic activity of Russian business on the African continent.

Background
Founded by the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce of the Russian Federation with the support of Vnesheconombank June 18, 2009 foundation of the Committee supported the key Russian government agencies and ministries (the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, etc.), as well as representatives of all business categories (large, medium, small). Committee - "umbrella" structure that combines the Russian state and private organizations and companies in order to coordinate their activities in the African sector. Its members include more than 120 organizations and companies. The Afrocom’s structure also includes three Business Councils, which are working on a bilateral bases: Business Council Russia-South Africa-Russia Business Council Business Council of Nigeria and Russia - Sudan. In June 2009 Vladimir Dmitriev was elected as a Chairperson of AfroCom (Coordinating Committee on Economic Cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa). His deputies are representatives of three structures: Vnesheconombank (Alexander Ivanov), Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Chamber of Commerce (Vladimir Padalko), they reflect the desire of the best interests of members and opportunities for these organizations the development of its foreign trade. Under the aegis of the Committee activities aimed at deepening bilateral relations with individual countries and for the strengthening of Russian-African relations as a whole are carried out. The Committee took an active part in ensuring the business part of the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a number of African countries in June 2009. Special business forum was organized in Nigeria. Following the visit to the Russian Chamber of Commerce two special meetings of the Committee were held with the participation of members of the business delegation of the President of Russia, who are also members of the Committee.

Areas of activities
1. The creation of support mechanism of foreign trade activities of Russian companies.

2. Maintenance of Russian companies with informational support. To do this, set up the Expert Council headed by the director of the Institute of African Studies, AM Vasiliev. Committee members are distributing information and reference materials for Africa, as well as tender documents and proposals from African companies / organizations for cooperation in any area of economic cooperation (mainly purchases of certain products). 3.In the January 2012 launched the website of the Committee (afrocom.ru). This is the first online resource in Russian devoted entirely to the state of the economy in Africa and the development of Russian-African economic ties.

4.For the functioning of an information block are utilized the resources of the Institute of African Studies, theoretical and practical achievements of key Russian ministries and companies, as well as their own material. For information work also involved the Russian embassy in Africa and the African embassy in Russia.

5.Business contacts between businessmen of Russia and Africa (business missions, seminars, conferences, meetings).