In 2021, the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East initiated and launched a mechanism of state support, namely the Far Eastern Concession Programme, aimed at removing infrastructure constraints in the Far East for regional residents and investors. As of today, 8 pilot projects with total investments of RUB 12.3 billion have already been approved and are being implemented as part of the programme. There is an acute shortage of new facilities in the areas of education, children's development, health care, as well as housing and communal services. There is a growing demand on the part of investors for the provision of transport infrastructure, primarily roads and energy facilities. At the same time, in the current economic conditions it is necessary to find balance between the existing budgetary constraints and the conditions for attracting financing and investors for the implementation of concession projects.

Moderator:
Pavel Seleznev — General Director, Public-Private Partnership Development Center

Panellists:
Alexander Aksakov — Director of Infrastructure Bonds Division, DOM.RF
Anatoliy Bobrakov — Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic
Kirill Bychkov — First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
Alexander Dolgov — Partner, Head of Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships, Better Chance
Victor Kalashnikov — Deputy Chairman of the Government – Minister of Economic Development of Khabarovsk Territory
Pavel Puzanov — Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Amur Region
Diana Samandas — Minister of Finance of the Magadan Oblast
Maria Sinicic — Director of the Department for Integrated Development of Territories, Ministry of Construction, Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation
Vera Shcherbina — First Vice-Governor – Chairman of the Government of the Primorsky Territory

Front row participants:
Vartan Avetov — Executive Director, Creative Technologies
Anna Baginskaya — Managing Director, Head of the PPP Center, Sberbank
Roman Berdnikov — First Deputy General Director, Member of the Management Board, RusHydro
Vladimir Demidyuk — General Director, VTB Infrastructure Holding
Alisa Denisova — Executive Director of the Business Block, VEB.RF; General Director, Proshkola
Valery Eremin — General Director, System Concessions
Viktoria Ivacheva — Deputy Director for Public Private Partnership, DNS Development
Denis Nozdrachev — General Director, InfraVEB
Pavel Ovchinnikov — General Director, K1 Concessions
Oleg Popov — Acting Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Sakhalin Region

The global geopolitical changes are shaping a new economic agenda for decades to come. The development of the digital economy, one of the pillars of technological sovereignty, is already playing a key role in this process. Digital finance is a driving force and an indispensable component of cross-border and domestic processes, feeding into all economic flows. The momentum of digital finance is already being felt strongly in the economies of Eurasia and the east as a whole. New laws to regulate digital assets and digital currencies are being rapidly adopted, major projects for the construction of digital infrastructure are being developed, increased attention is being paid to new settlement, payment and investment tools, digital Islamic finance is being actively rolled out, and traditional financial and currency markets are beginning to embrace elements of the world of digital currencies. The creation of a long-term, advanced digital finance architecture requires regulators, businesses and citizens to work in several areas concurrently, including the development of the necessary financial and resource infrastructure, the training of IT personnel, changes to the education system, and the creation of modern and flexible legislation. The growth of decentralized finance around the world is outpacing the relevant legislation. With a variety of developments underway in decentralized finance, from mining and NFTs to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), regulation and the advancement of digital finances in Russia are still focused on digital financial assets and digital currencies and discussions around the potential of Russian stablecoins. Despite this, the Bank of Russia added the first company, Atomyze, to a new register of operators of digital financial assets in early February 2022. Two more, Sber and Lighthouse (Transmashholding), have since been added and plans to create several more operators have been announced. What is the business model of these operators? What is the potential for development in digital finance in Russia and the Far East in particular? How is the current international situation changing the course of the domestic digital finance market? What do industry players want from regulators? What growth path will the Russian digital financial sector take?

Moderator:
Elena Lazko — Partner, Head of Strategy and Operations, Kept

Panellists:
Mikhail Gordin — Acting Rector, Bauman Moscow State Technical University
Alexey Guznov — Secretary of State – Deputy Chairman, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)
Alexei Moiseev — Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation (online)
Anatoly Popov — Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank
Igor Runets — Founder, General Director, BitRiver
Elina Sidorenko — General Director, Platform
Emile Parfait Simb — Chief Executive Officer, SimbGroup SAS
Ekaterina Frolovicheva — General Director, Atomyze
Kim Hyeong-joo — Chairman, Korea Blockchain Industry Promotion Association
Anna Sharipova — Managing Director for National Projects, Russian Technologies State Corporation

Front row participants:
Anatoly Aksakov — Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Financial Markets (online)
Denis Nevzorov — Director of the Department for International Cooperation and Technological Development of the Far East and the Arctic, Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic
Aleksey Poroshin — General Director, Center for Regional Economics

The Russian financial sector was one of the first and hardest hit by the blow of large-scale sanctions. The primary objective now is to reorient the sector as quickly and efficiently as possible, taking into account the changing realities. This presents a serious challenge, as market participants will be required not only to jointly develop and implement new working principles, but also carry out an almost total rebuild of many elements of the domestic financial infrastructure that have been performing strongly. At the same time, it is vitally important that the conditions for both the long-term sustainable development of the sector itself, and the gradual implementation of an adaptive economy backed by a credit resource are put in place. Some degree of pain will of course be caused by any deep structural transformation to the Russian financial sector. Changes will inevitably be felt in legislation and the regulatory and oversight activities governing the sector, as well as the running of the stock market, activities in global markets, and mechanisms for interacting with clients. What are the initial results of the ongoing transformation? How can its success be evaluated during this process?

Moderator:
Alexandra Suvorova — Anchor, Russia 24 TV Channel

Panellists:
Nikolai Zhuravlev — Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
Andrey Kostin — President and Chairman of the Management Board, VTB Bank
Mikhail Oseevskiy — President, Rostelecom
Ilya Torosov — First Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation
Igor Shuvalov — Chairman, VEB.RF

The current situation in the world has changed everything. The global economy is still panic braking like motorists who see an obstacle in front of them on the highway. Some of them have already driven right up on the obstacle and are pressing the brakes, while others are still cruising behind them without seeing the obstacle, but will soon have to slow down too. Factories are shutting down, supply chains are in tatters, and companies are experiencing such a shock that they cannot service loans and pay rent, as the risk of borrowers going bankrupt increases. Pessimism about future incomes is growing among the public and industries, and all social benchmarks are changing. The pre- and post-COVID worlds are two entirely different places, and perhaps there are now three different worlds after the start of Russia’s special military operation? On the other hand, though, we have been hearing about the injustices of the modern economy, humans’ attack on nature, the loss of morals, and other negative phenomena in our lives for so long that we almost always, or quite often, subconsciously hope that the emerging world will be better than the one we are leaving. The world, which until recently was not just a comfortable place to live, but also a fairly highly organized system, will never be the same as it once was. The world of the late 2020s will be very different from that of the late 2010s. It has already changed both mentally and materially. We can talk about the distant future for a long time and trust that biotechnologies will undoubtedly replace information technologies as the main driver of the economy: the former will be embodied in increasingly unique and expensive products, while the products of the latter will soon turn into a public good. It is clear that our society will become more atomized, and people will become more adapted to surviving alone. Trade will start becoming confined to regional associations, which will look more and more like separate large countries. A lot of other things will happen, but there is one thing that is clearly not going to happen: the complexity of human civilization will not wane. And we all have to make a difficult choice: our money or our life? In what direction will we develop and how? Where should we stop, where should we turn around, and where should we look back?

Moderator:
Sergey Rybakov — Chief of Staff to the Chairman, All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation (VOOP)

Panellists:
Boris Korobets — Acting Rector, Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU)
Maxim Safonov — Professor, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
Vyacheslav Fetisov — Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Goodwill Ambassador, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Chairman, All-Russian Society of Nature Conservation

Front row participants:
Aleksandr Lila — Director, V.A. Nasonova Research Institute of Rheumatology
Yuliya Morozova — Deputy Chairman of the Government of Kamchatskiy Krai
Julia Morozova — General Director, Creative Production
Ekaterina Salugina-Sorokovaya — General Director, International and Comparative Law Research Center

Russian regions have adopted a large package of regional anti-crisis measures to stabilize the socio-economic situation following the measures put in place at the federal level. At present, the anti-crisis portfolio differs by region depending on budgetary capacity, economic specialization (including at the level of the impact of sanctions on primary sectors) and other factors. Some of the anti-crisis measures, both federal and regional, are gaining significant traction, while others are in place more as a formality and many measures are assumed to be short-term. At the same time, the depth of impact of the sanctions on the regional economy and the stability of regional budgets will be different for federal subjects in the Far East, most of which are currently subsidized. Medium-term anti-crisis measures are therefore required. How have federal and regional support measures affected the economic and fiscal stability of federal subjects in the Far East? Which measures have proven to be the most popular and effective? How effectively are support measures penetrating into the real economy? Can strategic priorities be maintained within an anti-crisis framework? What risks do the medium-term effects of sanctions pose for regional budgetary systems? What measures taken at the federal level to stabilize regional budgetary systems have been the most effective? What measures should be taken in the medium term, taking into account the impact of sanctions?

Moderator:
Natalya Trunova — Auditor, Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation

Panellists:
Sardana Avksentieva — Deputy Head of the Faction, "New People" Political Party
Anton Basansky — Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic
Leonid Gornin — First Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation (online)
Natalya Zubarevich — Professor of the Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University (online)
Vladimir Klimanov — Director, Institute for Public Finance Reform (IPFR); Head of the Regional Policy Center, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
Alexander Osipov — Governor of Trans-Baikal Territory
Marat Shamyunov — Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic

Front row participants:
Alexander Bardunaev — Chairman of the Committee on Budget, Taxes and Finance, People's Khural of the Republic of Buryatia
Evgeniy Chekin — Chairman of the Government of of Kamchatka Territory