Page 40 - bne_May 2021_20210601

40 I Central Europe
least – will shift from being an essential
part of day-to-day work to a more collaborative space. Estonia, Georgia and Croatia already welcome digital nomads, and more countries will to follow suit. The hunt for talent –
an issue in CEE’s tight labour markets – will diversify, with companies now
able to recruit remote workers from poorer parts of the region (such as Armenia, Moldova or Ukraine) without the need for them to physically migrate.
8. More authoritarianism
The latest Nations in Transit report
from Freedom House published in April points to a 17-year decline in democracy in the post-socialist space, where leaders are undermining democratic institutions to stay in power.
Nations in Transit 2021: The Antidemocratic Turn charts a “systemic shift toward authoritarianism in Europe and Eurasia”, where the number of countries classified as democracies has fallen to its lowest level since the report was first launched in 1995.
This is only set to worsen, said Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. “Democratically elected leaders are turning away from democracy and creating their own warped realities
to consolidate and retain power. Through their successes so far, these anti-democratic regimes are setting
an example and fuelling the rise of authoritarianism in neighbouring countries. Left unchecked, they have the potential to undermine democracy and
legitimise the abuse of power in Europe and beyond,” according to Abramowitz.
“How much does the increase in authoritarianism and state capture in the 10 years since the financial crisis matter from an economic point of view? Hungary, Turkey and Serbia have had some of the best economic performances recently, but I think there will be an impact in the medium to long term,” commented wiiw’s Grieveson.
9. Hardening West-vs-Russia divide
Looking at the geopolitics, Russia’s influence has dwindled in the western part of Emerging Europe, where a growing number of states, not just Russia hawks Poland and Romania, have rejected Moscow’s influence. Several Western Balkan states are now NATO members, causing Russia’s sphere of influence to dwindle to Serbia and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska.
To the east, Russia has extended its influence in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, where splitting states is
a favoured tactic that has forced
a Russian presence upon Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The eruption
of the long-frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict into war in 2020 left Russia
as the peace-broker with extended influence in both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia and Turkey were
the main beneficiaries of that conflict, commented Velina Tchakarova, director of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES).
bne June 2021
“The geopolitical lines – the West vs Russia, and the US vs China – that are global but played out in Europe have hardened a lot,” said Grieveson.
“I see the frozen conflicts in Eastern Europe still very much existent, with escalation phases and possibly some territorial changes. I wouldn’t exclude Russian military bases in Belarus
by 2029,” said Tchakarova. As an alternative format, she speculated that
a new China – Turkey – Russia – Iran axis could take shape in the region.
10. A bigger Chinese presence
China has been steadily increasing
its presence across the region, from Central Asia to Central Europe, all
of which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) connecting East Asia to Western Europe along multiple land and sea routes. Investing into infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, in the region gave China a chance both to improve transport links to Western Europe and to put excess engineering capacity to work.
This will continue as China was relatively quick to emerge from the coronacrisis, which – barring a new wave – puts it
a strong position to continue investing. However, the Chinese style of investment is looking increasingly problematic. There have been objections over deals that fell through, pollution connected with Chinese investments in Southeast Europe and Central Asia and struggles to repay debt to Chinese banks.
bne:Tech
Contents
Top stories
Russia’s top retail and tech companies join forces to hunt for innovations in the rest of the world 2 Ukraine-born startups raised more
than half a billion dollars in 2019 4 Russian video streaming platforms
gain speed 5 Cloud services take off in Russia 6 SEMrush to SEO success 8
Leaders 9
Russia’s internet giant Yandex
announces growing and more
diversified revenues in 2019 10 Russian telecom major Rostelecom misses on earnings in 4Q19, cash
flow solid 12
Investment 13
World Bank approves $35mn project
to modernise Kyrgyz tax administration and statistical system 13 Romanian online home decoration
retailer raises €3.5mn in bonds 14 Russian billionaires Abramovich, Gutseriev, said to invest in Telegram
crypto project TON 14 Russian fund Da Vinci Capital gets
€30mn from Germany’s DEG to invest
in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan 15
Fintech & E-commerce 16
Russian e-commerce major
Wildberries to add self-employed
vendor products to offering 16 Russian Dixy retailer to launch online sales with Ozon 17 Valuation of Sistema’s e-commerce
asset Ozon boosted to $1.8bn 17
Telecom 19
Makedonski Telekom’s net profit
up 6% y/y in 2019 19 Romanian telco Digi grows by double
digit rates in 2019 19 Russia could postpone 5G rollout
from 2022 to 2024 20
NIBs 21
We have launched a new publication bneTech
A FREE newsletter covering technology, blockchain, ICOs, TMT and all aspects of the "new economy" in Emerging Europe, Central Asia and MENA.
Click the button to read the latest issue
March 2020
www.intellinews.com
@bneintellinews
Russia’s top retail and tech companies
join forces to hunt for innovations in
the rest of the world
BAs Russia’s retail and tech sectors consolidate, the leading companies are turned their gaze outwards to hunt for
bne:Tech
new technology and innovation.
See page 2
Ukraine-born startups raised more
than half a billion dollars in 2019
In 2019, the venture capital and private equity funding volume for Ukrainian and Ukrainian-founded tech startups reached $544mn (up from $323mn in 2018 and $265mn in 2017), says AVentures Capital’s latest industry report ”DealBook of Ukraine”,
reports Adrien Henni of Ukraine Digital News. See page 4
SIGN UP HERE
www.bne.eu