10th Annual Russian Economic Forum
The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, 22-24 April 2007
The 10th Annual Russian Economic Forum featured standing-room only plenaries on both days, and was once again attended by over 2000 registered delegates.
The opening plenaries on Monday 23 April, chaired by Roger Munnings of KPMG and Andrew Somers of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, featured the heads of leading international private and multi-national institutions, including Hans-Joerg Rudloff, Chairman of Barclays Capital; Jean Lemierre, President of the EBRD; Richard Lambert, Director General, Confederation of British Industry and Dr. Klaus Mangold, Chairman, German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. Russian speakers included Rustam Minnikhanov, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Alexander Lebedev, a leading Russian businessman and a Deputy of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (State Duma).
The set speeches in the large main hall were followed by a frank and intensive question and answer session, where delegates fired questions at speakers on a variety of fundamental issues, including the image of Russia in the Western media and how it is created, and the diversification of the Russian economy.
The afternoon on the first day was interrupted by the sad news that Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation, had passed away. Russian TV Presenter Vladimir Pozner, who was chairing the first session on Day Two, opened the morning’s proceedings by calling on all participants to stand for a moment of silence.
The second morning featured a highly eclectic lineup, from major spokesmen for Russian industry such as Igor Yurgens and Boris Titov, to well known entrepreneurs Evgeny Chichvarkin and Oleg Tinkov – faces of a new generation of the country’s business leaders. Other key speakers for Day Two included the Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling MP, British Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alexei Gurin, Chief Executive Officer of Amtel-Vredestein N.V and Nikolai Dobrinov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of NOMOS-Bank.
More than 20 themed panels across the two afternoons embraced a wide variety of topics, some focussing on specific sectors such as oil and gas, construction and mortgages, or telecommunications, to others featuring discussions reflecting on the path Russia has taken over the last ten years, since the Forum first began, and expectations for how the presidential elections scheduled for 2008 will impact on the investment climate.
Key afternoon speakers included Ruben Vardanian, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO, Troika Dialog Group; Alexander Frolov, Chairman and CEO, Evraz Group; Chris Baxter and Roland Nash of Renaissance Capital; Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank and Sergei Litovchenko, Executive Director of the Russian Managers Association.
Over 400 Russian and international journalists took part in the Forum, and many appeared as moderators or speakers of various panels. In addition to Mr. Pozner, they included Alison Smale, Managing Editor of the International Herald Tribune; Stefan Wagstyl, Eastern Europe Editor of FT; Liza Osetinskaia, Editor-in-Chief, Vedomosti; Andrei Vasiliev, Editor-in-Chief, Kommersant Publishing House; Sergey Brilev, Deputy Director, RTR (Russian State TV); Leonid Parfenov, Editor-in-Chief, Newsweek Russia; Nikolai Uskov, Editor-in-Chief, GQ Russia and Maxim Kashulinsky, Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Russia.
BBC World filmed a special edition of its popular HARDtalk programme in front of a live audience on Day Two, after experimenting with this format at the conference in 2006 for the first time ever in the history of the programme. Stephen Sackur spoke with Mr. Lebedev, in a hard-hitting interview to be broadcast on BBC World on Tuesday 1st May.
A press conference between the organisers of the Russian Economic Forum and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, to announce a new cooperation agreement, was also held on Day Two.
Major Partners for the 2007 Forum included KPMG, Beeline, Renaissance Group, Dewar’s, Audi and the EBRD, and the conference was also supported by a long list of corporate sponsors and media partners.
