St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is the main annual international economic event in Russia traditionally held in summer in St. Petersburg to discuss pressing issues of national and global economic development and a wide range of international challenges.

The Forum has been held since 1997 and, since 2006, has been patronized by the President of the Russian Federation. It brings together more than 5,000 Russian and foreign participants annually, including Heads of State and Government, ministers, politicians, heads of parliaments, top officials of international organizations, business leaders, heads of Russian regions, leading academics, representatives of mass media and civil society, and prominent individuals from various walks of life.

Until 2006, the Forum was held under the auspices of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation in association with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 2006, responsibilities for the organization and holding of the Forum were assigned to the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. Decree No. 65 of the President of the Russian Federation of January 22, 2008 established the Steering Committee for Preparation and Holding of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF Steering Committee) headed by the Minister of Economic Development. Since 2014, the Steering Committee has been headed by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Head of the Government Executive Office Sergey Prikhodko. Organization and logistics of the Forum's meetings are supervised by a non-profit Roscongress Fund (former St. Petersburg International Economic Forum Fund). Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Vassily Nebenzya is a member of the SPIEF Steering Committee.

The Forum focuses on modalities of economic development of Russia and the CIS countries, as well as issues related to their involvement in international integration processes. It provides a platform for discussing the most pressing national and global economic problems, including global economic growth prospects in the context of globalization, social and economic reforms, innovation-based technological development, setoral and regional economic challenges and international and regional cooperation. It also provides an opportunity for federal districts of the Russian Federation and the CIS countries to present their potential investment projects. Foreign guest countries of the Forum make presentations.

In recent years, the SPIEF has evolved from an important domestic forum into a recognized and high-profile international event, which has won international recognition. That is largely due to the objective growth of Russia's political influence and to the strengthening of the Russian business positions in the global economy. The SPIEF format has been increasingly used to hold bilateral meetings between top Russian officials, heads of the federal agencies of the Russian Federation and their foreign counterparts.

The 20th anniversary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum held on June 16-18 under the motto "Capitalizing on the New Global Economic Reality" received great international attention, which was largely due to the active political and diplomatic support on the part of the MFA of Russia. According to most observers, the Forum produced all-time record political and commercial results.

The Forum engaged over 12,000 people from 130 countries. High-level delegations from Italy, Kazakhstan, Guinea and Malta arrived to the Forum. It was attended by ministers from over 30 countries, heads of 11 international organizations, including the United Nations, European Union, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (the UNECE), Universal Postal Union, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, World Tourism Organization, BRICS New Development Bank, Eurasian Economic Commission and CIS. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker delivered their speeches at the opening ceremony. The participation in the SPIEF–2016 of major figures representing the European political establishment for the first time since the introduction of sanctions by the European Union, indicated progress towards a possible lifting of restricting measures against Russia taking into account the anti-sanctions climate prevailing among the European business sector.

The Forum brought together representatives of 1,300 companies, 880 of whom were chief executive officers, including CEOs of Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Total, Alibaba, Eni and other companies. 332 agreements were signed. The total value only of all the non-confidential contracts that were reached at the Forum exceeded 1 trillion roubles – three times as much as in 2015.

The Forum featured more than 300 events, with over 100 of them within the official segment. Among the events held were the SCO and BRICS Business Forums, the G20 Business Forum, a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club, the Development Award Ceremony and the Global Energy Prize Ceremony, a high-level meeting of energy companies and dozens of thematic panel discussions. Business round tables on the development of economic cooperation between Russia and Latin America, North America, Africa, Italy, Switzerland, India, Japan, Germany, Great Britain and Bangladesh held within the Forum sparked keen interest among its participants. The Conference on the Economic Development of Arctic Region was held for the first time within the SPIEF framework. Journalists from 2,170 media outlets form 39 countries covered the Forum events.

The outcome of the 20th SPIEF made it clear that, over its 20-years history, the Forum had gained a reputation of Russia's primary international political and economic event of the year. The Forum confirmed its importance as an internationally recognized prestigious platform for an informal business-government dialogue, establishment of confidence-based business networks, an open and frank exchange of views between the representatives of political and business elite, academic and civil society and mass media on urgent issues of global economy and politics. Each year the interest to the Forum has been growing, inter alia from the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa.

The recent SPIEFs have convincingly demonstrated the futility of the attempts to isolate Russia politically and economically and to exclude it from the global processes of economic cooperation or international economic partnership.

For further information about the Forum and its 2016 session, please, refer to the official web sites of the SPIEF: http://www.forumspb.com/ or the President of the Russian Federation: http://www.kremlin.ru.