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| SPIEF 2023 takes place from June 14-17, in St. Petersburg. (Source: Imago Images) |
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum-SPIEF is a special event held since 1997, attended and sponsored by the President of Russia since 2006.
Over the past two decades, SPIEF has become the leading forum for discussing economic development trends, challenges and prospects, and is also a destination for the international business community to meet and seek investment and business opportunities.
Addressing global economic challenges
According to Sputnik , as every year, SPIEF 2023 officially opened in St. Petersburg, the commercial gateway, financial and industrial center and also the cultural capital of Russia. President Vladimir Putin attended the Forum, delivered a speech on the sidelines and participated in the plenary session. On the occasion of SPIEF 2023, he sent his best wishes to the delegates, organizers and guests, expressing his belief that the Forum will continue to contribute to solving global economic challenges and be a "model" of constructive and effective dialogue.
This year's SPIEF is expected to attract a large number of politicians, businesses, and researchers to discuss various topics - from profound systemic change, how to pivot to a multipolar world with new forms of international cooperation, to de-dollarization, the future of currency, and the global artificial intelligence (AI) race.
President Putin believes that the old world order will never return and that waiting for the current chaos to dissipate on its own is impossible. Therefore, the theme chosen by SPIEF this year is to promote “Sovereign development as the basis for a just world: Uniting forces for future generations”.
According to TASS, the SPIEF 2023 program is expected to include about 200 events, panels and business dialogues, with the participation of more than 1,000 delegates and speakers from over 120 countries. The six main topics of the Forum are: Business Dialogue; The World Economy at a Turning Point; Building Technological Sovereignty; Protecting the Population and Quality of Life as a Key Priority; The Labor Market: Responding to New Challenges and The Russian Economy: From Adaptation to Growth.
On the opening day, the Forum will focus on issues of promoting technological sovereignty, how to best use education and science to address new challenges in the labor market. The Forum is scheduled to spend June 16 discussing hot topics such as how AI has impacted the global labor market and how new AI tools are changing the economy, as well as what potential Russia has to develop AI technology.
The world economy in times of great change will be “dissected”. “The language of diplomacy in a multipolar world” is one of the topics on the agenda. Speakers will consider new forms of international cooperation, import and export transactions to facilitate economic, financial, humanitarian and cultural integration between friendly countries.
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) partnerships in the new context will be discussed.
In the context of the US dollar becoming a geopolitical weapon, SPIEF 2023 debates the appropriateness of a transition of global trade to a “supranational currency”, alongside the increased use of national currencies in trade.
The forum will specifically discuss the development of the Russian economy amid the extensive sanctions imposed by Western countries due to the conflict in Ukraine. “Between the sanctions and the crisis of globalization, Russia began to look for new horizons. The conclusions drawn from the discussions at the Forum will influence the important decisions of business and the authorities in the future, in the interests of sustainable development,” said Russian Presidential Adviser Anton Kobyakov.
New collaborative space
In the 2000s, when Russia’s economy was booming, big Western investors and investment bankers flocked to SPIEF in search of deals. However, they have recently been replaced by Chinese, Indian and Arab investors.
Given the volatile events unfolding globally, with increasingly clear outlines of a multipolar world, SPIEF is expected to be “the leading trusted space with equal opportunities for all economic entities in the world,” said SPIEF Executive Secretary Anton Kobyakov.
One of the events that clearly demonstrated this was the bilateral business dialogue program between partners from Arab countries, India, China, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), ASEAN, Latin America and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The guests considered new forms of international cooperation, import and export transactions that facilitate economic, financial and cultural integration between countries. The UAE participated in SPIEF 2023 as a special guest.
Indeed, Russia’s role in the global economy is increasingly challenged amid Western sanctions and a decline in revenues from energy-related exports. As a result, SPIEF 2023 is likely to increasingly gravitate toward non-Western participants with whom Russia has more friendly relations, such as China and India…
Recently, according to Reuters, the UAE - one of the world's largest oil producers - has received more oil tankers from Russia. According to statistics, about 1.5 million barrels of Russian crude oil have arrived at UAE ports since November 2022, with import volumes increasing since the beginning of 2022.
This is just one example of how Western sanctions against Russia have reshaped traditional energy trade flows. The development highlights the growing cooperation between Russia and leading Gulf oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE…
These are new spaces for cooperation, as Saudi Arabian investors see it, Russia is a treasure trove of untapped investment opportunities waiting for them to explore and diversify their portfolios.
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