SPIEF-2018

The annual economic forum was held in St. Petersburg fr om May 24 to 26. SPIEF 2018 was held under the slogan “Building a Trust Economy,” and this year reached new heights, both in terms of scale and results. The business programme incorporated over 150 business events, the central event was the plenary session, featuring President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. As of 30 May, 593 agreements had been signed at SPIEF, worth a total of RUB 2.625 trillion (counting agreements wh ere the figures were not classified as commercial secrets).
The Indian delegation at the forum was headed by the Minister of Trade and Industry Sri Suresh Prabhu. The visit was very successful with the Minister meeting 5 Russian Ministers and several top Business leaders representing Railways, Communications & Media, Fertilizers and Startups. He held meetings with Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, Minister of Transport Yevgeny Deitrich, Minister for Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin, Minister for the Development of the Far East Alexander Kozlov, and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. Furthering the goal of increased cooperation between the regions of the Russian Federation, the Minister also had meetings with 4 Governors of Stavropol, Yaroslavl, Udmurtia and Ingushetia. Politicians highly estimated the level of development of trade relations, but noted the areas for growth and development. The general orientation of the talks was reduced to the issue of creating and implementing a plan to expand the Indian-Russian trade and economic cooperation. Priority areas for achieving this goal were identified logistics, infrastructure, knowledge-intensive economy, diamonds and gold. As the target areas for joint cooperation, such high-tech sectors as pharmaceuticals, innovative industries, digital economy were discussed. Also, the Indian minister noted the need to create joint ventures to participate in tenders of other countries
Both ministers agreed with the highest priority of commissioning the North-South corridor. Simplification of logistics between countries will give a new impetus to trade relations.
The next economic forum will be held in St. Petersburg from 6 to 8 June 2019.