SPIEF 2016 reaffirms Russia and Western countries commitment to constructive dialogue & cooperation

June 30, 2016 - PRLog -- Russian and foreign experts continue to discuss and analyze the results of the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2016) that brought together more than 12,000 participants from 133 countries and saw record growth in the number of investment agreements signed.

"The Forum's most important outcome is that it has once again confirmed its reputation as one of the largest, most respected, and desperately needed platforms in the world for direct and open discussion between representatives of the state, the business community, academia, and the expert circles from around the world of the current challenges facing the global economy and financial sector. The number of Forum participants continues to grow year after year: another testament to Russia's enduring role as a crucial global business and finance hub. We highly value the interest and, more importantly, the trust of Forum partners, guests, and participants," Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation and Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary of the SPIEF Organizing Committee Anton Kobyakov said.

According to him, 1,300 companies, including 880 represented by executives, participated in the Forum. A total of 356 official documents were signed at the Forum; the total value of signed agreements was about 1,5 trillion rubles.

According to the analysts, SPIEF 2016 demonstrated the crisis of sanctions policy and the desire of Europe to establish contacts with Moscow. In particular, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi spoke in favor of closer cooperation with Russia.

"It is obvious that there are certain problems in relations between Europe and Russia and it is clear that we both have a reasonable ground to think about the past and why this problem ever occurred. I find it fundamentally important […],to take joint efforts and make an attempt to solve this problem looking to the future and to everything that unites us. […] Italy is at the forefront to affirm our presence not only in Russia but also Kazakhstan. All that can be done together, we will be happy to do. We respect the brand 'Made in Italy,' but we like the idea of 'Made with Italy' - including in the agricultural sector, the areas of technology and innovation," he said speaking at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also pointed out the need for a constructive dialogue and cooperation.

"Incidentally, current geopolitical tensions are related, to some extent, to economic uncertainty and the exhausting of the old sources of growth. There is a risk it may increase or even be artificially provoked. It is our common interest to find a creative and constructive way out of this situation," the Russian leader said.

According to him, the creation of more extensive Eurasian partnership could be promising direction of further cooperation.

"We are aware of the impressive prospects of cooperation between the EAEU and other countries and integration associations. Over 40 states and international organizations have expressed the desire to establish a free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union. Our partners and we think that the EAEU can become one of the centers of a greater emergent integration area. […]Now we propose considering the prospects for more extensive Eurasian partnership involving the EAEU and countries with which we already have close partnership - China, India, Pakistan and Iran - and certainly our CIS partners, and other interested countries and associations," Vladimir Putin said.

Commenting on the Forum results, Simeon Djankov, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Bulgaria, pointed to the participation of senior EU officials in it.

"SPIEF 2016 was significant with the presence of several top European politicians like European Commission's president Jean-Claude Juncker, Italian Prime Minister Renzi, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. This suggests Russia and the European Union are coming closer together in discussing ways to alleviate economic sanctions," he told PenzaNews.

According to him, some movement in the direction of sanctions lifting can be expected in the next 6-9 months.

"It is better to have open communication channels and use the St Petersburg Forum as a platform for debate on common issues like trade, climate change, economic growth. In that sense the Forum was successful," he said.

From his point of view, the forum was a good venue to warm up economic relations between Russia and the European Union.

"This is needed and will be helpful as a start of further discussions. These discussions have to be more detailed and cover areas of common interest, for example ways to open up public procurement for each other's companies," the economist added.

According to Velissarios Dotsis, Enterprise Greece CEO, SPIEF was a first class opportunity to Russian as well as foreign companies to present important projects and as a result underlined the importance of boosting the global business dialogue.

Source: http://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/62058-2016