OREANDA-NEWS. October 6, 2011. The 4th Tula Economic Forum dedicated to the transformation of Russian cities into a comfortable environment and basic city development problems took place in the Tula Kremlin.

The Forum was attended by nearly 2,000 delegates – heads of federal ministries and departments of the Russian Federation and power bodies in the Federation constituents, representatives of the largest Russian and international companies, the academic community and public organizations, the Russian and foreign media and the regional business, and also guests from the United States, Singapore and EU member countries.

The Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry was represented at the Forum by the RF CCI President Sergey Katyrin.

Regional Development Minister Viktor Basargin, Tula Governor Vladimir Gruzdev and Vice-President of the Skolkovo Development Foundation Stanislav Naumov took part in the Plenary Meeting, “Principles of the Development of Russian Cities.”

Sergey Katyrin told the Plenary meeting that, according to a UN forecast, up to 85% of the total population will live and work in cities by 2025, which makes the Forum subject extremely topical.

A comfortable city environment is not just the accessible infrastructure, security, cultural tradition and ecology but also the possibility of self-realization, especially for the economically active population, the head of the RF CCI said. This self-realization is interlinked with the problem of employment, whose solution requires comprehensive development of small and medium business, primarily in the technological sector of the city life.

At present small and medium business in Russia mostly concentrates on trade, public catering and services, as its advancement to public utilities is hampered by corruption and imperfection of the Federal Law No 94-FZ. Meanwhile, in Germany over 90% of energy and water suppliers are small and medium companies. Sub-contracts, which give small business an access to technological processes, are widely used in the city infrastructure, such as transport and servicing of engineering networks. This business environment is highly competitive and innovative.

The RF CCI suggests a number of instruments, among them the formation of the investor navigation infrastructure with the full use of the Chamber’s potential inside the country and abroad, in order to intensify investment activity in regions. This infrastructure requires a new system of communications and a mechanism of public-private partnership, Sergey Katyrin concluded.

The RF CCI signed an Agreement “On Investment and Innovative Cooperation with the Administration of the Tula region and the Tula CCI” on the Forum sidelines.

The signatories were RF CCI President Sergey Katyrin, Tula Governor Vladimir Gruzdev and President of the Tula CCI Yuri Agafonov.

A National Report, “City Development: Best Practices and Modern Traditions,” drafted by more than 250 specialists from Russia and other countries, was presented at the Forum. The Industry and Trade Ministry, the Chamber of Commerce and the Industry of the Russian Federation, the Skolkovo Foundation, the Russian Public Chamber and the Expert RA Rating Agency rendered support and participated in the drafting of the Report.

The Report analyzed advanced practices of city development in this country and the world in the areas of energy efficiency, modern construction technologies and maximal use of information and communication technologies in the administering of city processes. The best world and domestic experience summarized in the Report may help form a set of criteria for the evaluation of the work of the local authorities.

The Forum is due to result in the elaboration of the Tula Initiative, a document summing up key principles of the future development of cities in Russia, a prototype of the national city development doctrine. The Tula Initiative will be the source of distinct and devoid of dual interpretation definitions of key indicators of efficiency for the appraisal of the activity of the municipal authorities and their spending of local budgets.

It was proposed to make the development of the city environment and infrastructure the permanent subject of the Tula Economic Forum.