The Petersburg Economic Forum – 2013. Discussion results

The main economic event of the year – the Petersburg International Economic Forum – was held in Saint Petersburg. Its official statistics: over 5 thousand participants, hundreds of meetings of significance for Russia and the whole world, negotiations, agreements and declarations (for more details see the RIA Novosti website). Heads of large international organizations, largest Russian companies, famous economists and lawyers for three days discussed the most acute challenges of the modern day; from social and economic consequences of the world crisis to the level of regional economies and new technological possibilities of certain branches of industry.

The Forum was also landmarked by the speech of Vladimir Putin, who, in particular, suggested merging of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Higher Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation. The experts’ community discussed the suggestion of the President of Russia and expressed their opinion regarding the perspectives of its implementation:

Experts: Merger of the supreme courts in Russia may be positive // PRIME
The Constitution of Russia will amended again for the sake of merger of the supreme courts // RAPSI
Alternate airfield for Medvedev: why Putin creates a “supercourt” // Forbes
Duma will support the Presidential project of merger of the supreme courts // Pravo.RU
The Final Judgment // The column of the editor-in-chief of the Bank Survey
Experts say that merger of the supreme courts is a political move //RBC Daily

The discussions about the PPP and Russia’s integration into the WTO were just as avid. For example, some sessions were dominated by the acknowledgement of the fact that investments into the infrastructure, especially into its transport segment, will be the main driver of the development of the Russian economy for the nearest decade. The speakers at all thematic sessions stressed the necessity to eliminate excessive legislative barriers and to increase the quality or normative and legal regulation in that sphere. Associated Partner of the Law Firm "YUST" Evgeny Zhilin pointed out that YUST is uniquely competent in the PPP area and other legal instruments, which mediate investments into the infrastructure objects. Therefore, the Firm’s specialists intend to keep actively participating in the implementation of concrete projects in the entire territory of Russia as well as in the development of better rules of the game in the sphere. The following problems were mentioned during the discussions, in which Associated Partner of the Law Firm "YUST" Anna Kotova-Smolenskaya also took part:

• The Russian economy’s needs to develop the existing airports and to construct new ones and the ways to increase the efficiency of investment projects with the participation of private funds;
• Modern-day limits and risks of implementation of PPP in the sphere of investments into transport infrastructure objects;
• The foreign PPP experience and the opportunities of implementation of their mechanisms in the actual Russian conditions.

See also: materials of the sessions «Integration into the WTO and augmentation of competitiveness of the Russian industry» and «The innovative approach to the forming of the new economy of the Russian regions»

The full version of the program of the event is available here.