Siberia's economic future to be mapped out at Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum

By The Siberian Times reporter

11 February 2013

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is to lead discussion of how to put Siberia on the world map of growth at the annual forum.

Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum is often seen as a venue for conducting major business deals and speculation has intensified over a 100 million euro deal to modernise and expand Krasnoyarsk's Yemelyanovo airport. Picture: The Siberian Times

'The accent will be made on how to implement the main development directions in Siberia and in the Far East', said deputy premier Arkady Dvorkovich.

On the agenda are 'new economic growth models' to assist a leap forward in growth leading to an improvement in the quality of life in Siberia and the Russian Far East.

Krasnoyarsk governor Lev Kuznetsov stressed the success of the forum, now in its tenth year.

'What is the 'master plan' of the government? What must be done to achieve it? How will the authorities, community, entrepreneurs and experts take it and how will it correlate to the world agenda? These are just some questions we aim to answer'.

Viktor Tolokonsky, the Presidential Envoy in the Siberian Federal District said how the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum has become a truly effective platform, transforming the work of politicians, scientists and experts into business ventures.

'We've got to use all available opportunities to build the new economy. Siberia is very rich in natural resources and is close to the fast-growing Asian markets; Siberian cities have a unique scientific and educational potential.

'The private investors must become the driving force behind the development of Siberia, with Russian State helping by offering favourable conditions for the businesses', Tolokonsky said.

The forum is expected to exceed its 2012 achievements when it was attended by more than 2,500 participants from over 40 Russian regions and 28 countries.

The event is often seen as a venue for conducting major business deals and speculation has intensified over a 100 million euro deal to modernise and expand Krasnoyarsk's Yemelyanovo airport. Renova expects the airport to serve as a hub for NordStar Airlines, and is negotiating with UTair to expand its operations in the region. The forum will also see the visit of youth leaders from a number of G20 countries including the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, and China.

They are due to share their experiences of the implementation of principles of openness and transparency of authorities in their countries.

The prime minister will use his visit to back Krasnoyarsk's bid to host the Winter Student Games in 2019.

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Russians need to learn to show the world in images and words that they want to be part of it, as Russians, and how wonderful life is in Russia. If they can't manage that even just as PR, noone will come en masse, either as tourists or to invest. Once foreigners start coming to Russia en masse then Russians have a choice of what to learn from them and what not to learn from them and vice versa.

Philip, UK

14/02/2013 16:56

Something I've noticed as well. Russians are not good at presentation, PR. While here in the West its vastly overdone at the expense of reality and substance, in Russia there still seems to be a mentality of 'who cares, we'll get paid anyhow' (old Soviet) or 'who cares, if they come they come if they don't so what?'. This is also where the blat-corruption mentality stems from over time. Russians are a very profoundly spiritual people you haven't had much incentive to make wordly matters interesting. the Western way of making the most of life and opportunities is still foreign to a great many ordinary Russians, who tend to keep their heads down and do what the 'Tsar' tells them. The feww who are energetic cannot move the many who aren't, so have either emmigrated or gone to revolution.

Philip, UK

14/02/2013 16:55

Yemelyanovo Airport needs a lot of work.... I love its quirkiness but as Airports go... it's a bit... um.. stuck in 1980. And although it's an international airport there are no announcements in English which makes it hard when people visit immigrants like me.

Mao Oliver-Semenov, Krasnoyarsk

14/02/2013 00:18

how home such forward thinking forum has such a badly done website? No money to translate the message they want to send out into proper English..?? Its like reading something from the soviet past

Alexis, Portugal

12/02/2013 22:40