Forum program

Issues for Discussion:

• How have realia of work for investors in Russia changed over 25 years? What is the secret formula for growth and sustainability of business: localization and strategic partnerships, investments or cost reduction? Best practices
• How far did global companies become Russian companies, did they manage to provide the Russian market with high-quality goods, and did they start exporting the products manufactured in Russia abroad?
• The world has changed: supply chains, regional needs, labor costs are changing - at what extent does the Russian market continue to be attractive for foreign investors in the current environment?
• Interaction of business and authorities: how does the level of dialogue of the Russian authorities and investors meet the expectations of investors and what has to be done to bring the dialogue to a new level?
• Growth points: infrastructure, entrepreneurship and regions - how can foreign companies contribute to further development of the Russian economy?

Moderator:
Maxim Akimov, First Deputy Chief of the Government Staff of the Russian Federation

To learn more

Keynote report:
Cyril Muller, Vice President, Europe and Central Asia, the World Bank
Ana Revenga, Deputy Chief Economist, the World Bank

To learn more

Issues for Discussion:

• Challenges to long-term development - why shall the development be sustainable
• Long-term goals of sustainable development
• Paris climate change agreement - seriousness of voluntary goals and initiatives
• Low emission development strategies - additional load on the economy or growth driver?
• Technological challenges and demand for innovation
• The role of business in achieving sustainable development

Moderator:
Pavel Kadochnikov, President, the Center for Strategic Research Foundation (CSR)

To learn more

In today's world, there is a general understanding that the quality of human capital has a decisive impact on the competitiveness of the national economy. Social institutions of forming human capital (education, health) and institutions of human capital use (labor market) are distinguished by their functions and efficiency. Historical traditions of social development have a great impact on the functioning of these institutions. This fully applies to modern Russia. Social development has changed dramatically over the past century since the Russian revolutions. No less significant challenges are facing the country at present and, even more in the long-term outlook.

Issues for Discussion:

• With what traditions, achievements and problems in the social sphere did Russia enter the market era? 
• Which ones have become drivers of economic development and which are the brake?
• What are the requirements to the human capital and social institutions imposed by a postindustrial society?
• How is the vector of social development seen in the world and in Russia in the mid-term and long-term outlook?
• What tasks have to be solved in the social sphere today to ensure sustainable social development tomorrow?

Moderator:
Alexander Shokhin, President, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

Keynote report:
Olga Golodets, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

To learn more

Since the end of 2016, the Government of the Russian Federation has launched a number of priority projects, which are intended to give tangible social and economic benefits within limited managerial, human and financial resources. And the effects tangible for citizens must be received in the first two years of the priority projects implementation.

Issues for Discussion:

• How can the project management system help to overcome the limitations of economic growth in the Russian economy?
• What is the social and economic motivation to launch the projects?
• In what directions should new priority projects be launched, and what are they?
• How do approved priority projects implement Russia's development strategy?

Moderator:
Andrey Slepnev, Deputy Chief of the Government Staff of the Russian Federation - Director of the Department of Project Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation

To learn more

Issues for Discussion:

• How can the policy and law reforms promote economic efficiency and economic growth (looking for an optimum by economic criterion)?
• Implementation of the justice concept and legal coverage (legal support) - what is the role of economic structures (institutes) and economic policy through the lens of the justice concept (looking for an optimum by ethical criterion)
• What economic conditions enable non-legal actions, where do these economic conditions stem from?
• What can the economic policy make to limit non-legal actions of the social development actors?
• What economic institutions restrict non-legal actions, what is the optimum structure of these institutions (restriction of shadow economy, etc.)?
• What is the role of the Russian judicial system and enforcement as a whole in the search for an optimum by economic and ethical criteria?
• What are the peculiarities (the national overtone) of the problem of property rights protection in the Russian economy?
• In what specific areas of economic and financial activity could law foster the movement to modern markets the most?

Moderator:
Stanislav Mogilevsky, Director, Institute of Law and National Security, RANEPA

To learn more

Issues for Discussion:

• Effectiveness of public audit as a tool for ensuring transition to innovative economy
• Institutional features of public audit
• Role of external audit in maintaining the efficiency and improving the system of company management
• Operational effectiveness of external audit
• Conflict of expectations in the interaction of internal audit service and management team
• Problem of positioning of internal auditors: independence, ethics, company management vision of the goals and objectives of internal audit
• Increasing requirements for professionalism and competence of internal auditors. Need for a national system of internal audit standards and national certification for internal auditors
• Audit theory development directions in Russia and in the world
• Strategic state audit and objectives of social and economic development of Russia
• Internal audit as a tool to enhance efficiency of a company: samples of best practices
• Staffing the audit services: new requirements and technologies

Moderators:
Valery Goreglyad, Chief Auditor, the Bank of Russia
Igor Bartsits, Director, the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service, RANEPA

To learn more

The ratings of conditions and results of development of high-technology businesses show, in which Russian regions it is profitable to run an innovative business, and reflects the actual situation following the innovative activities in the constituents of the Russian Federation.

To make them objective and well-founded, the ratings are not based on expert assessments, but on quantitative indicators. The ratings involve evaluation of regions by individual components of the condition block and result block. This makes it possible to identify leaders in each component, to show strengths and weaknesses in the development of each region.

Issues for Discussion:

• Presentation and explanation of the results of ratings
• Application of the ratings for planning and regional development
• Further improvement of the ratings

Moderator:
Ivan Bortnik, Adviser to the Director General, the Innovation Promotion Fund

To learn more

Moderator:
Vladimir Mau, Rector, RANEPA

To learn more

Issues for Discussion:

• Inter-budgetary relations and distribution of authority
• Development of regional agglomerations

Moderator:
Alexey Kudrin, Chairman of the Board, the Center for Strategic Research Foundation (CSR)

To learn more

Main themes shall be development bifurcation points: banks and banking, government-owned and private banks, federal and regional banks, offline and online banks (do we need branch networks?). Due to the emergence of the payment services such as PayPal, Bitcoin cryptocurrency, Blockchain, P2P lending, the global financial system is being transformed. Large IT companies have already turned their attention to the development of financial and technological platforms. This resulted in the development of their own innovations in this area. All this inevitably leads to competition with classic commercial and investment banks.

Issues for Discussion:

• What will the emergence of new players in the world of finance lead to in the future?
• How is the global financial landscape being transformed?
• When will financial and technological platforms replace classic banks?
• Development bifurcation points: public and private banks, federal and regional banks, offline and online banks
• Do the modern banks need branch networks?

Moderator:
Ruben Aganbegyan, Chairman of the Managing Board, Member of the Board of Directors, Otkritie Holding JSC

To learn more

Issues for Discussion:

• The future of integration processes in EU
• Changing the balance of power within EU
• EU trade policy without the United Kingdom
• General foreign and security policy of EU after Brexit
• The new model of the relationship between EU and UK. What will it look like?
• Place of the United Kingdom in Europe and in the world
• EU in global governance processes after the United Kingdom leaves

Moderator:
Fedor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief, the Russia in Global Politics magazine; President, the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy of Russia

To learn more

Moderators:
Igor Ivanov, President, the Russian International Affairs Council
Igor Bartsits, Director, the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service, RANEPA

Keynote report:
José Antonio Vera, Presidente-Director General, Agencia EFE

To learn more

Russia's financial markets have strengthened considerably over the past twenty-five years, with lessons learned and institutions emerging to regulate and stabilize during crises and create positive conditions for investment during good times. The work of these experts on Russia's financial institutions shows their influence on corporate development and regulations.

Issues for Discussion:

• How strong are Russia’s financial institutions?
• How do financial regulations affect institutional development?
• How does corporate finance contribute to national financial institutions?
• What is the role of financial institutions in current economic growth?
• Is the financial system a public good?

Moderator:
Carol Leonard, Professor, Director, Center for Russian Studies, Institute of Social Science, RANEPA

To learn more

The perceptions of migration processes occurring today in Russia and in the world, are often based not on verifiable facts, but on unverified information and explicit myths. If at the level of everyday consciousness this situation is quite typical, but, at the expert community level, for obvious reasons, it is unacceptable. The objective of this section is to clarify the situation in the global mobility, with a particular focus on Russia.

Issues for Discussion:

• Is it true that the immigration inflow to Russia is represented mainly by bad educated and low-skilled people?
• To which extent, the common judgements occurring in the press about emigration from Russia (both in quantitative and qualitative terms) correspond to the reality?
• What do the migration processes - immigration and emigration - look like in the most developed countries of the world?

Moderator:
Vladimir Malakhov, Director, Center for Theoretical and Applied Political Science, RANEPA

To learn more

In October 2017, according to the results of the competitive selection, there was formed a list of 11 innovative clusters - participants of the priority project of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development “Development of innovative clusters - the leaders of investment attractiveness of the world level”. Clusters-winners are based on the recognized innovation-driven growth points, and in recent years they have made real progress in building innovative business models oriented to foreign markets and embedding in the global research-and-production chains. Herewith, communication with overseas clusters and territories-leaders was subsequently developing to adapt the most effective management practices. Success story appeared - creation of innovative, world-class infrastructure, exit to highly competitive foreign markets, etc.

As a result, despite the unstable economic situation and sanctions, cluster leaders on many crucial indicators managed to keep positive dynamics advancing the other Russian regions. However, the management structures and methods largely do not meet the very ambitious goals that clusters set themselves in the mid-term, as well as new challenges to their development, including resource constraints. In particular, non-market management models focused on budget funding have become consolidated in recent years. Management teams do not have sufficient experience and qualifications for competition at the international level. Traditionally, insufficient attention has been given to such an important direction of promoting on foreign markets, as brand development in the region.

Thus, in the short term it is necessary to take the next step in improving quality of management of the clusters development, including on the basis of intercluster dialogue.

Issues for Discussion:

• How one can grow several clusters-global champions for the next 3-5 years? What are the ingredients of success?
• Which Russian cluster is better ready to move internationally and has succeeded in this lately?
• What to do?! Priority activities, low growing fruits, strategic objectives.
• How to attract to clusters the most qualified  and highly motivated staff who able to compete internationally?
• How to involve the maximum number of stakeholders in the development of clusters (both within clusters and beyond)?
• How can the state effectively support cluster development in view of the extremely ambitious goals and hard budget constraints?

Moderator:
Oleg Fomichev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation

To learn more

Issues for Discussion:

• Detection of break points in the chain of the inventor's life cycle
• Search for effective mechanisms of the system elements breaks elimination that generates thinking of a inventor
• Competence and value matrix of a modern inventor as the basis for the development of technological entrepreneurship in Russia

Moderator:
Marina Rakova, Director General of the Foundation for New Forms of Education Development

To learn more

Existing exchange control requirements create barriers, both for individuals and for business, discriminate positions of national entrepreneurs as compared with foreign partners, reduce domestic export. In addition, foreign exchange control limits foreign investors to do business in Russia.

The control system is very bulky and heavy administered. Herewith, existing foreign exchange restrictions today are no longer justified, because they do not contribute to achieving the macroeconomic objectives of ensuring stability of the national currency and stability of the domestic foreign exchange market.

Russia is a member of many international agreements, which allow today to use international cooperation mechanism for raising capital on the territory of Russia, while reducing the administrative burden on business and citizens.

Issues for Discussion:

• Why is exchange control needed in Russia in the absence of requirement of mandatory sale of foreign currency proceeds?
• Is the exchange control the restriction for entrepreneurial activity of Russian business abroad and a barrier to FDI in Russia?
• Proposals to improve the exchange control and  introduction of modern international instruments of interaction, including OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Moderator:
Antonina Levashenko, Head, the Center of Competence and Analysis of OECD standards, RANEPA

To learn more

The formation of modern knowledge and innovative management knowledge is where leading business schools have achieved success in. Meanwhile, they learn to channel the knowledge and skills to improve business practices; to develop legislation; to support social initiatives, useful and applicable for business, public administration and society.

The future success of business schools in the modern world largely depends on how effectively they can act as unifying leaders.

There are numerous examples of how the unifying efforts of the business schools form the ground for positive changes, initiate a transformation of the university management system, improve the regional and national educational environment, introduce new quality standards, set examples of social responsibility and multifunction management approaches. All this brings tangible results, contributing to the development of business, state and society.

Issues for Discussion:

• What approaches and methods do the leading business schools use to increase the positive impact at the university, regional and national levels?
• What are the examples of successful “uniting leadership” in the practice of business schools?
• How do the “unifying efforts” affect the development of the business school, the quality and content of the program portfolio, improving the qualifications of faculty, possibility of the practical implementation of research results?
• How does it help business schools meet the challenges of the digital revolution?
• What directions do you consider the most important for the development of “unifying leadership” in the future?

Moderators:
Sir Paul Judge, President, AMBA
Sergey Myasoedov, Vice-Rector, RANEPA; Director, Institute of Business Studies, RANEPA; President, the Russian Association of Business Education

To learn more

The business environment is rapidly changing. This results in dramatic changes of the whole management education market landscape. There is growing dissatisfaction on the side of the business community with the level of provision of educational services. The business community criticizes universities and business schools for education that is overly academic, distant from practice and the present day needs.

In contrast, the importance of corporate universities is growing that flexibly and quickly react to the business needs. The leading business schools in Russia and all over the world are looking for ways to enhance cooperation with the business community, in parallel trying to retain the fundamental nature of educational programs and dramatically increase their relation with the business needs.

The roles of players in the management education market are strongly influenced with breakthrough technologies; besides, the trend for education virtualization is accelerating.

Issues for Discussion:

• How will the role of business schools and corporate universities change in the management education market in 10 years?
• What market niches will they try secure for themselves? How will the academic program portfolio be distributed between them in a decade?
• What are the ways and opportunities available for development of mutually beneficial cooperation between major players in the management education market, creation of the synergistic effect from combining their knowledge and skills?
• What joint projects could be used as examples to follow?
• How do business schools and corporate universities respond to the threats and use opportunities of “breakthrough technologies” and education virtualization?

Moderators:
Sir Paul Judge, President, AMBA
Ashot Seferyan, Director, the Executive MBA program, Institute of Business Studies, RANEPA

To learn more