Valdai Club to discuss scenarios for Russia’s economic development

The 9th annual Valdai Club summit will be held in St. Petersburg and Moscow on October 21-25, 2012. Its theme is “The Future Is Being Made Today: Scenarios for Russia’s Economic Development.”

“The Russian leadership is facing many challenges. The economy needs to abandon the standard model based on hydrocarbon exports, but the new modernization reforms should be radically different from the reforms of the 2000s,” said Alexander Rahr, Research Director of the German-Russian Forum and a member of the Valdai Club Advisory Board. “Russia needs to restructure its economy not simply by correcting mistakes of the past, as Vladimir Putin did 12 years ago. It needs to create a completely new system that will help the country become globally competitive in the 2020s and 2030s.”

Approximately 100 Russian and foreign economists, political analysts and international relations experts will discuss macroeconomic development scenarios for Russia amid the growing instability of foreign markets and domestic debates on possible ways to reform the Russian economy. Experts will analyze the main trends in the Russian and global economies and the biggest international and national challenges. They will also assess Russian development scenarios up to 2030 and prepare economic policy recommendations based on the existing and future conditions for Russia’s economic growth and sustainable development.

“Following discussions of possible development scenarios based on a matrix where the amount of available resources correlates to the quality of management institutions, we will prepare a report summarizing our vision of the best economic development path for Russia,” said Leonid Grigoryev, a member of the Valdai Club and head of the Department of World Economy of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Moscow Higher School of Economics.

The conference will be attended both by Valdai Club members and newly invited experts, economists and political analysts from 19 countries including the United States, China, Iran and Western and Eastern European countries, as well as representatives of the World Economic Forum who have contributed to the development of the macroeconomic scenarios.

The meeting will begin on October 21 in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s Northern Capital. It will then move to Moscow, where participants will meet with Russian newsmakers and attend a Sberbank of Russia Business Breakfast devoted to the theme Managing the Risks through Leadership.

The Valdai Club was established in 2004 and named after the location of its first meeting – the city of Veliky Novgorod near Lake Valdai. The Club’s mission is to foster a dialogue between Russian and foreign scientists, politicians and journalists and to provide a scholarly analysis of political, economic and social processes in Russia and the world. Its conferences are held in Russia and outside it and are attended by dozens of political analysts from many countries. Since the Club’s inception, its meetings have been attended by more than 600 representatives of the international academic community from 44 countries.

The 9th meeting of the Valdai Club has been organized by the Russian News Information Agency RIA Novosti and the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, in association with Russia in Global Affairs magazine, The Moscow News newspaper and the PRIME business news agency.

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