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SME Forum Business Programme Architecture Published

SME Forum Business Programme Architecture Published

On 14 June, the opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the SME Forum will take place. The main theme of the Forum will be international business cooperation. It is organized by the Roscongress Foundation and OPORA RUSSIA.

In addition to traditional thematic sessions and discussions on SME sector development, the Forum business programme will include fundamentally new, practice-oriented formats of interaction between business and government – workshops, pitch sessions, failure stories, and TED Talks.

“Small and medium-sized businesses are an important component of the economy, and the country’s well-being largely depends on the timely and effective support measures that are in place today. Our future goal is to integrate accelerator programmes as much as possible and stimulate the development of small and medium-sized businesses,” said Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation and Executive Secretary of the SPIEF Organizing Committee.

The programme of the SME Forum events is divided into four main blocks: foreign economic activity, finance, cooperation and networking. The theme of the plenary session will be ‘International Cooperation: From Challenges to Solutions’.

The foreign economic track will include sessions on the export potential of Russian IT products and the role of business in the Greater Eurasia area, and a workshop on e-commerce. Forum participants will also share their stories of export failures and share their experience with colleagues on how to avoid such mistakes.

The financial block will cover issues related to current lending conditions for business development, tax legislation, and available tools for SMEs to raise finance. In addition, the speakers will also review start-up cases and the venture capital landscape in Russia from the perspective of investor and entrepreneur interests.

One of the main topics of the Forum will be international business cooperation. Profile sessions will cover such topics as becoming a supplier for large government-owned companies and take part in the ‘growth’ programme, new approaches to developing and transforming manufacturing SMEs, opportunities open to companies after joining the Declaration on Cooperation between big business and SMEs, and opportunities available for developing exporters in industrial clusters in the UAE, etc.

A plenary session with representatives from the federal government, business development institutes, entrepreneurs and other speakers will also focus on international cooperation.

A separate platform at this year’s Russian SME Forum is dedicated to networking. Entrepreneurs from different regions of Russia and other countries will be able to exchange contacts with potential investors, major customers, find common ground for launching joint projects and expanding their businesses.

“The Russian SME Forum traditionally opens SPIEF, which once again proves the importance of small business development and the government’s interest in increasing its role in the country’s economy. This year we have changed our approach to the thematic sessions, making them as practice-oriented as possible for business. We have concentrated on developing foreign economic relations, supporting Russian exports, and developing domestic production, the goods of which will be in demand in many friendly countries. This is necessary for further structural transformation of the economy and a new role for Russian goods and services in the global market. More than a thousand people, including OPORA RUSSIA entrepreneurs from all regions of our country, visit the SME Forum venues every year. I am confident that the participants in the sessions will gain useful experience and new business contacts, which will help them in their further business development,” noted Alexander Kalinin, President of OPORA RUSSIA.

            St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be held on 14–17 June 2023. 

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