OREANDA-NEWS. On October 20-21, 2008, Saint Petersburg, Russia, hosted the Seventh All-Russia Forum on Strategic Planning in the Regions and Cities of Russia, reported the press-centre of Evrofinance Mosnarbank.

The Forum was organized by the Russian State Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament), Russian Ministry for Regional Development, Russian Ministry for Economic Development, Saint Petersburg city administration, Center of Strategic Research and ICSER Leontief Centre.

The Forum has a six-year history but this time the level of its participants is unprecedented. Boris Gryzlov, the Speaker of the Russian State Duma, and Dmitri Kozak, the Minister of the Russian Federation for Regional Development, co-chaired its cheering committee. On 17 September 2008 the Russian State Duma adopted a resolution on state support for the Forum and for the Russia’s Regional Social-Economic Development Strategies and Programmes Awards Contest to be held among the constituent regions of Russia.

Governors of all the constituent regions of Russia, speakers of all the legislatures of the Russian constituent regions as well as Russian federal ministers, vested interests, academic community members and experts have been invited to participate in the Forum.

Mrs Maguelonne Dejeant-Pons, executive secretary of the European Conference of Ministers responsible for regional / spatial planning (CEMAT); Ms Natalija Kazlauskiene, Director of Directorate C of the Directorate General for Regional Policy of the Commission of the European Union and Klaus Klipp, Secretary General of the Assembly of European Regions attended the Forum.

The discussion focused on the following vexed questions: whether a planning authority analogous to the State Planning Committee of the USSR shall be established in Russia; what are possible coordinating procedures with regard to development strategies of particular regions, particular industries and the Russian federal government; what are reasons for looming failure of large-scale projects in Siberia and the Russian Far East and what are possibilities for implementation of positive experience of the European Union in regional planning.

A business competitiveness ranking of the Russian constituent regions calculated under methodology used at the World Economic Forum was presented to the Forum participants. It was announced at the Forum on the decision to hold a Russia’s Regional Social-Economic Development Strategies and Programmes Awards Contest. Its results will be used for further development of the Russia’s strategic planning system.

The title sponsor of the Forum – Evrofinance Mosnarbank, Moscow.