- 9 months ago
St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF25) organised by Roscongress Foundation managed to pull an even larger crowd this year as the world facing multipolar.
During Press Briefing with Astro AWANI, Deputy Directors of Roscongress Foundation Alexey Volkov and Armen Khachatryan reiterated that participation to the forum is based on mutual trust and shared values to build the world.
During Press Briefing with Astro AWANI, Deputy Directors of Roscongress Foundation Alexey Volkov and Armen Khachatryan reiterated that participation to the forum is based on mutual trust and shared values to build the world.
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00:00Our foundation is so comprehensive. It's wonderful that you attend.
00:06First of all, I'm Ali from Gulf News Bahrain. Thank you for your hospitality.
00:11I would like to ask about Bahrain participation this year as a guest of honor.
00:18How does that help to continue the good and strong relationships between Russia and Bahrain?
00:28And what you would like to – you hope to do for next years,
00:36and how do you see the Bahrain participation in the next years of this event?
00:49Thank you so much for your question.
00:51We are so happy that the Kingdom of Bahrain is the guest of honor here,
00:57in St. Petersburg at the Forum.
01:01We are very glad that the SEU wonderful delegation is here,
01:07representatives of business, representatives of official structures.
01:12It's a great pleasure for us to see the speakers that participated in the plenary meeting,
01:22members of the royal family, Bahrain.
01:26and we are really grateful for the kind words said about St. Petersburg's International Economic Forum
01:37and its role in global economy, international.
01:42The relations with the guest of honor is always a very specific status,
01:49and we always pay great attention to the goals of the delegation of this country.
01:57We had a very close dialogue in order for all the tasks that were set by the official delegation to be fulfilled.
02:09But it is also crucial for us that next year, even despite the fact that a different country would have the status,
02:21but the representatives of the Kingdom of Bahrain continued participating in our Forum,
02:27large delegations to continue the dialogue to build on the agreements made here.
02:37And we hope that next year, colleagues, business association, representatives of business
02:46business would be not just participants, but also have some stands participating in the Expo within our Forum.
03:00Dear colleagues, you have spent several days of your life, and we hope that it was useful.
03:06It was not a way of wasting of your time.
03:09You've seen Russia and St. Petersburg, which is one of the most beautiful cities of the world.
03:15I'd like to try to answer your question in terms of the content.
03:20So, as you heard yesterday, the plenary meeting, our President said that and other participants,
03:26our world today is growing a little bit different.
03:31New alliances are formed.
03:33New trade and international relations are being formed.
03:38Polarity is changing.
03:40Our world is becoming genuinely a multi-polar one.
03:47So, in all of that, to be efficient and useful to all of us, we need to tell each other how we live,
03:56how Bahrain lives, how Russia lives.
03:59Unfortunately, businessmen and people, they do not always have the chance to feel it.
04:05So, our event is the one to those countries, guests of owners and participants of the Forum to come here,
04:14to have direct contact with potential, prospective partners, representatives of culture, sports, business experts from Russia,
04:25and to come to understand how we live in Russia, what we think about, so on and so forth.
04:32So, this dialogue could bring us towards a truly multi-polar and just world.
04:38Thank you so much.
04:40Thank you so much.
04:42Thank you so much.
04:44Thank you so much.
04:45Thank you so much.
04:47We've seen during the main plenary session where President Putin was speaking.
04:53So, we've seen the representatives of President Indonesia and then we have the representative from Middle East as well as China.
05:02I'm just wondering what are the initiatives to engage the Western representative more,
05:09either now or in the future, for SPIR?
05:15It's a very simple question, but it's also a difficult one.
05:32We can't say for sure who is going to participate in the forum next yet, specific participants.
05:40We don't know that yet.
05:42We haven't made these decisions yet, and we don't want to spoil the surprise for possible participants of the next forum.
05:51But we are sure that the number of participants of this forum, high-ranked participants,
05:58it's going to grow every year.
06:00The number of participants is growing year by year.
06:03This year we've set another record of participants and foreign participants of the forum.
06:11And yes, for the countries as well, countries participating in the forum.
06:20So come here next year.
06:23You will see everything with your own eyes.
06:26I would also like to comment on that.
06:29You know, our team that is preparing St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, people have more than 10 years of experience.
06:45So we pay lots of attention to growing attention and interest and, of course, trust, which is obviously important, of participants to our forum.
06:57For us, this is the main indicator in general in terms of preparing this project.
07:10Because, you know, on the one hand, we could say that St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is about this vast program.
07:20Thousands of people work on it throughout the year.
07:24And then they stand gathering it.
07:27We can say that it's an expo that we spent more than a month building here.
07:34Oh, this is huge work.
07:37It's also, it has work with participants, with journalists.
07:42But, you know, it's a platform.
07:49It's a platform that is a tool, primarily a tool for development, for dialogue, for achieving results, boosting efficiency.
08:07For each category of participants.
08:10These goals are different.
08:13For businessmen, it's about contracts and some new opportunities or insights that he might get first-hand within a business program.
08:26For representatives of mass media, some exclusive materials and this opportunity to write great articles for representatives of companies.
08:36For companies, for workers skills are different.
08:39But our task, our goal is to help them all achieve their goals.
08:45And so, that every year we can see the increasing number of participants.
08:51And so, that every year, hundreds and thousands of businessmen of businessmen, official figures, they spend almost a week here at our event, for us is extremely valuable.
09:12And the fact that this number is really proof that we are doing everything right.
09:22And that our goal is the space of trust and dialogue for the whole world.
09:31We are ready to continue our work, to make it even more efficient, even more comfortable and accessible.
09:41In order to make sure that even more participants could use all the opportunities that are created here at the forum.
09:54And they are created by these participants themselves.
09:58That's the most interesting thing, this effect of this wonderful event.
10:03So, that's my answer, that next year we expect even more representatives of business and official delegations and journalists, of course, to be able to, for them to get together here in St. Petersburg to find method development solutions to problems that the world community will be facing.
10:32Thank you so much, dear colleagues, any further questions?
10:37Participated, and also the number of countries that participated.
10:44So, my question is on the current ones, BIF 2025.
10:48How many people, if you know by now, have taken part?
10:54And how many international and national partners?
11:01And how many international and national partners also took part?
11:07Before he will answer, I would like to tell you that today, Antolchik will give his press conference, where he will tell you the numbers.
11:23He will tell you all year.
11:24I just wanted to say that it's kind of, you know, it's almost noon.
11:30And it's a concluding day of the forum.
11:35The forum finishes its work after 5 p.m., and the participants are arriving.
11:42They get accreditation.
11:43And now we have this program of this youth day, and also the major programs.
11:54People from around the country come here.
11:57Young ambitious people come here.
11:59They were invited to participate in the events.
12:03That's why the statistics will come at this final press conference.
12:09But now we can say for sure that the figures are better than the ones for the last year.
12:16And that's very important because, you know, there was a pause in conducting such events.
12:28And the sector, with these events, it had to be restored.
12:34And last year, virtually, it got, okay, it got recovered.
12:41And we saw the growth last year.
12:43And I think that the figures as of this year will be overwhelming.
12:47I would like to add a couple of words to the previous speakers.
12:51Well, let's not just speak about the figures because you can see, you can get to the main building
13:01and see the number of people there, the crowds.
13:06Because we have had three days of work, meetings of president.
13:10But still today, on this last day, you see the people, lots of people at the platform.
13:17And you can make sure we have lots of people here.
13:22And that speaks for itself.
13:25Yeah, that's true.
13:27As a moderator, I would like to add a couple of words.
13:30I know, our speakers personally, here in an important moment.
13:36For the last four days, you have all been saying that you are inspired,
13:41excited with this level of organization.
13:45But people do this event, they organize it.
13:49And maybe you could just misunderstand that some directors, general directors,
13:57they, but behind them, you see people, people who are with their hands.
14:02They actually do organize this forum.
14:05It's not just two people who are here with me today.
14:09No.
14:10No.
14:11No.
14:12No.
14:13No.
14:14No.
14:15No.
14:16No.
14:17No.
14:18No.
14:19No.
14:20No.
14:21No.
14:22No.
14:23No.
14:24No.
14:25No.
14:26No.
14:27No.
14:28No.
14:29No.
14:30No.
14:31No.
14:32No.
14:33No.
14:34No.
14:35No.
14:36You just understand that the level of responsibility is enormous, but still they are here smiling
14:46and still just enjoying their work, and let's move on.
14:51I want first of all to comment on how the event is very enormous, the logistics, it's
14:57a very outstanding event, maybe one of the biggest worldwide economic forum.
15:03And in this regard also I want to say or to highlight that this event is also not about economy,
15:08it's about innovation, about health, about welfare of the people, about bringing nations and culture closer.
15:15It doesn't have only economic aspects, but it has youth events, it has innovations, it has many protocols worldwide.
15:25Thanks for this, and you are bringing also culture closer.
15:30My question, I'll merge two questions actually.
15:34How are the key topics of the forum being formed today?
15:38And does the geography of the participants and their interest in Russia leave an imprint on the agenda?
15:46This is my question.
15:48And my second question may be, how do you see the level of participation of Egyptian delegation in this edition?
15:56And how to enhance it?
15:58I mean for the next editions.
16:01And in regard to our strategic relation between Russia and Egypt.
16:06We asked everywhere at every event what were the major topics of this world.
16:18And the answer is almost the same.
16:22The program of our event is always extensive.
16:26It's about everything.
16:27We do it so as every person attending the forum could find for himself here something useful.
16:39You see the topics dedicated to innovation, culture, sports, technologies, demography, economy, finances, health, everything, virtually everything.
16:52Could you name something that's missing here?
16:58I think no.
17:00Our colleagues have noted that we have more than 300 events in which more than 1,000 speakers participated, not just from Russia.
17:11And answering your question, oh, here, if you don't consider foreign participation, we have all regions here, all regions of Russia.
17:24No one is left behind.
17:26So, we try to extensively cover it.
17:35And saying that one topic is the major one, well, I think that's not correct.
17:41Because everyone decides for himself.
17:44I am sure that you have visited many sessions, you've seen, and you can answer the question for you.
17:52And you can say what the speakers are saying.
17:55And our task is to make sure that everyone could speak out here, say something that's interesting for him.
18:07I'd like to say that you have asked the participation of Egypt.
18:17Yeah, I would like to note that several years ago, Egypt was a guest of SPIF, and there was a stand brought here by the Egyptian delegation, and that was a very important stand.
18:35We see such a tendency, if representatives of high level officially come to this forum, then after the forum, in later years, the circles of business, participation remains at high level.
18:59Because, because I think I have already said it, you'd better see once than here many times, and come and see how efficient this platform is, how safe it is.
19:13And the participants, of course, put it on their agenda later.
19:20We open registration this every autumn, and by December we have bigger percentage of participation at first.
19:32And that means that's great that we have become a part of this regular agenda of international business.
19:41And that's quite a very very favorable news.
19:44But, in addition to our mentors, I'd like to say that you must have seen we have some same zones, thematic zones, that are being developed thanks to the factors that our petitions,
20:02it's a sectoral, but this events, they, that's a point of zone where you can come and find co-thinkers, and find new solutions that will help you with your development.
20:21I mean, urban hub, the territory of innovations, the new platform, agrocluster dedicated to agriculture, by the Russian-made goods, it's also dedicated to our domestic goods.
20:45And, of course, the Ross Congress International Zone, which has been introduced this year, and which we will keep developing.
20:55I think that's very important, because it's such a variety of participants and travel, expo, you can just get lost, and we ask and pay attention to our participants to prepare for this forum beforehand,
21:13and to plan their agenda, their activities to take the most of these days, and these thematic spaces, they enable you at any time, just come and see, and understanding that the colleagues from your sector work there,
21:33all day, they have their special programs, they have companies represented, and you can find their new contacts, and I would like to pay attention to the fact that these zones,
21:49they are accessible for partners, and those partners that cannot come for some reasons, financial or other, they can just join these thematic zones, and we have already had this experience, that's very important.
22:11And about this enhancement of Egyptian participation, Egyptian joins the Ross Congress International next year, that's just aimed to make sure to give this boost for our participants, for our poor partners,
22:31So that representatives, business associations of countries that are joining the zone, that they could have this point, this point, where there could be a few uses thematic zones later.
22:49Thank you so much, Сергей Валерьевич, thank you so much, dear colleagues.
22:53There are two questions, so there are two questions, but I'll ask it one at a time first. So I'm taking it beyond SPF 2025.
23:02Ross Congress also organizes a number of events abroad, in a number of countries, whether it's off-site events, road shows, through the years.
23:10Would it be fair to say that the Ross Congress has become a very important platform to Russia
23:16to propagate its views, its interests, and to further cooperation with different countries?
23:22You know, yesterday, the plenary session, that was talked about a lot by our leaders
23:39that St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is a platform that gives equal opportunities
23:46and gives this opportunity to all the countries, primarily to global South countries, this platform
23:56to work on new solutions, new approaches in order to consolidate interaction.
24:04And we are so glad to be a tool for achieving those goals.
24:11In terms of international events, of course, it's extremely important for us.
24:19And I've already mentioned it today.
24:22It's better to see it once than to hear it sound in times.
24:26So first-hand experience is always the best.
24:29And we understand that all representatives of business that might be interested in our event
24:38know about them.
24:40So our goal is to tell about it.
24:43So we once again restore this practice of international events.
24:48Our men also prepare programs for them.
24:53So it's about bilateral cooperation between states, some multilateral platforms for several states and countries to participate at once.
25:03But the goal here is to discuss, to focus, to find some solutions in order to develop bilateral ties and to tell foreign participants about the opportunities of our forum just in the format like we have here today.
25:22We ask questions.
25:23We ask questions.
25:24We answer those questions.
25:25We give you some pieces of advice in terms of planning, participation, the goals that might be achieved, why you should come to this forum in the first place.
25:41So thanks to this dialogue, we can see that the participants from those countries, they really come here.
25:49And what's the best thing here is that coming once, they later become our participants and participate again and again.
25:58There is one more important aspect here of those international events, and Alexei mentioned it, I mentioned it.
26:05This forum is an opportunity for international foreign participants to see Russia, even touch Russia in some sense.
26:17Our business, our culture, and international events make it possible for Russian businessmen to see the economy, the culture, and the people of the countries where those events are held.
26:30So this creates this effect of exchanging information, knowledge, cultures, even those vibes that help create really strong alliances.
26:44And this also makes it possible for the global economy to grow.
26:49We think it's the most important thing and we try to multiply those contacts.
26:55I would also like to mention in the context of your question, the previous question.
27:05So we came to understand Sultan much better after the country was the guest of honor.
27:13And before that we had international event of Ross Congress in the country.
27:18So this is just a great example.
27:21We didn't know that much about the country before that.
27:26But now we are moving forward with our development, development of our ties.
27:31That's a great example.
27:32Just yesterday I was told a story that a Russian businessman bought a factory mascot.
27:40I know so that's a great example of growing relations between our countries.
27:45So it's not in lean definitely.
27:50Unfortunately, the interpreter cannot hear the translation or cannot hear the speaker.
27:55Maybe as I want to highlight, as Andre said also, one of the outcomes during the Egyptian participation, I think in 2022, as a guest of honor for the SPF, signing the Daba, I think,
28:08a nuclear plant agreement and much more agreements on protocols between Egypt and Russia.
28:15So the Congress gives a great platform for more than protocols, economy.
28:23As I said, it's all about bilateral relations as well.
28:29Thank you so much.
28:32Yes, I remember your second question.
28:34A lot has been spoken about the topics.
28:37You are directly in charge of making the agenda for the event.
28:40The agenda this year runs into 85 pages.
28:43Obviously, it's very challenging.
28:44Can you take us through the process?
28:46When do you start this?
28:48Do you do feedback from the industry stakeholders?
28:51Do you do your own research?
28:52Do you have committees to vet it and then you take the final call?
28:55Can you just take us through the process broadly?
29:04I think our man is better placed to answer this question.
29:07Oh, I wanted Alexey to answer it, but okay.
29:10Yes, the agenda, the forum, is formed since the previous forum.
29:21What's happening now?
29:23What's going to happen?
29:25This all has some meaning, and it's impossible to grasp all those meanings at once.
29:35There are 30 to 40 events happening simultaneously, but we are recording everything.
29:41We have everything available at our website.
29:46If you didn't get a chance to visit an event you were interested in due to some reasons, you might also always visit our website and see all those events in Russian, in English.
30:00They are available at the events.
30:03So we also do that.
30:05So we try to evaluate and assess what our participants said, what will generate more interest in order to focus on that next year.
30:17But we also understand that our life is changing so rapidly and some topics that were extremely relevant last year.
30:26This year they might be much less relevant because some new topics appeared.
30:31And yes, a very smart person once said, the world has never changed as fast as it's changing now, and it will never change as slowly as it is changing now.
30:42So that's definitely true.
30:44We will spend a whole next year working with experts.
30:49We work with our partners, we ask them for proposals with our foreign experts.
30:57And so if we just print all the proposals for the program that we got in the process, it will be this high, you know, and it would weigh about 100 kilos.
31:11So then we just process all those proposals with our Russian experts and representatives of industries and ministries that are responsible for a specific sector of economy with our foreign experts that are also quite proactive in shaping this agenda in the program.
31:36I don't know.
31:37I don't know whether we've noticed it, but this year we had more than several thousands of bilateral dialogues, relations with Russian specific region or with a specific country.
31:49And we've set a record here for similar events.
31:55So these were all events organized – they were all organized based on our foreign experts' proposals to have this sort of dialogue.
32:03So we could also see – and Alexei mentioned it – that thousands of people are working on this program, and we really appreciate contribution of each person.
32:15Every speaker who said something yesterday or today, he made this intellectual contribution, invested into our forum, to our event, this most valuable resource time.
32:29That's the only non-renewable thing that we have.
32:32And if he or she has done it, it means that he or she has helped shape the program.
32:38So yes, we have this issue.
32:41Every year we can see that the program is becoming larger and larger, and we come to understand that this huge – this huge building, it's – we cannot host all the people who wanted to speak and all the events.
32:57So I hope that Alexei will make some measures, take some measures to expand.
33:04And if not, then we will try to do our best to make everything possible.
33:13Thank you so much.
33:15Dear colleagues, it's time for us to wrap up.
33:18So the last question, Kahira, please.
33:22Thank you from the ARN News Channel in Egypt, the founder of the forum, and thank you for inviting us.
33:28Next forum will be more successful in Charla.
33:32My question is, had the participation of the Western business community delegated been participated this year?
33:43I think that a lot of times this benefit of what's happening here is, you know, photo shoots of what's happening in the world in terms of participation of Western countries.
34:12You know, they've never actually stopped participating in our forum.
34:18Because, yes, recent years have seen significant decrease in the number of participants from Western countries as compared to the events prior to COVID-19.
34:34But they still come here, and the number of participants from those countries is growing year by year.
34:43We have specific figures.
34:45Of course, these are primarily business structures, small and medium enterprises primarily.
34:53But I could also say that even some official figures come here in order to join this dialogue, and we always welcome that.
35:07If you spend just a little bit of time and have a close look at the program of our forum – oh, no, maybe it would take a lot of time, because we have more than 100 pages – you'll see the names of people speaking here.
35:23You'll see Europeans, Americans, Arab, Asian – I can't even name a – oh, yes, we don't have experts from the tactics, but, you know, we have participants of all other continents here who participated in our forum.
35:42I would just like to emphasize it – we see our platform as an open platform for constructive dialogue.
35:55Anyone can come to our forum.
35:58I really want to emphasize it.
36:00Because we understand that logistics is quite expensive and quite complex, and we understand that the price for participating for business,
36:11business companies is rather high, but on the first day we have this day of international cooperation between SMEs, and all this is done for those representatives of SMEs to be able to participate in this forum,
36:30because the price is the price for participating in this event, this day of international cooperation.
36:37It's just 66,000 of rubles.
36:40And the price is the same for Russian businessmen and for foreign businessmen.
36:47You know, that's not a lot.
36:48I think that foreign participants spend more money on buying souvenirs.
36:54And we do that in order to make it possible not just for large companies, but for any businessman to be able to come here and to use all the tools that we as organizing committee and other participants generate here.
37:12So we make no exceptions for any sport of countries.
37:17We are open to everyone.
37:19I don't know that for sure, but I think that for some of you that's the first time – that's the first forum.
37:29Would you ask yourself a question?
37:31Would you like to come back?
37:32If your answer is yes, then maybe for all other foreign participants that would be true as well.
37:41And we just give you this opportunity.
37:43Thank you so much.
37:44Thank you so much.
37:45I would like to all thank you.
37:50I understand that it's the fourth day and your shadow is so tough when you send us those three days were so difficult.
37:58Thank you so much for finding time, coming here, talking to all the wonderful listeners.
38:04Thank you so much for your responsible approach and such interesting answers for coming here yesterday morning on the fourth day.
38:13Of course, it's not that easy.
38:15It might be tough.
38:16It might be tough.
38:17It might be tough.
38:18It might be tough.
38:19You know, I think that you know more about the forum than we do spending four days working with our wonderful team.
38:32That's great.
38:33Well, thank you so much.
38:34Thank you so much.
38:35And I really hope that you are satisfied with your stay in St. Petersburg and the weather this year is not that great, but you know, that's the real St. Petersburg.
38:51Thank you so much.
38:52Thank you for your time.
38:54Thank you very much, everyone.
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