The SME Forum

According to UN forecasts, seven out of every ten people on this earth will be living in cities by 2050. In Russia, 75% of the population already live in cities. In mid-May, based on a survey of Russians, the neural network visualized what the cities of the future will look like. The key criteria included ecology and energy efficiency, comfortable urban environments, smart and technological solutions. Cities and regions are already active participants in the sustainable development agenda. When identifying top-priority projects, criteria linked to impact on the environment and on people’s quality of life as a whole come to the fore. In addition, digital technology, alongside the Internet of things, AI and smart city services are becoming widespread and an integral part of the urban economy, and are essentially laying the foundations for “cities of the future”. How can we balance the needs of the population and the capacity of budgets when identifying top-priority projects? What technological solutions can we confidently replicate across the country? How can business and government achieve a synergistic effect when implementing urban development projects? What tools can help evaluate the impact of the implementation of specific projects? How can we create horizontal collaboration between cities to reduce transaction costs when pooling experience and adopting best practices for the implementation of development projects?

Moderator
Pavel Seleznev, General Director, Public-Private Partnership Development Center

Pavel Seleznev

General Director, Public-Private Partnership Development Center

Panellists
Irina Bakhtina, Sustainable Development Director, RUSAL
Tatiana Zavyalova, Senior Vice President for ESG, Sberbank
Andrey Samokhin, Chief Executive Officer, VEB.RF
Eduard Sosnin, Minister of Economic Development and Investments of the Perm Territory
Semyon Tenyaev, Founder, TenChat
Vladimir Shchekin, Founder, Co-owner, Rodina Group Development Company

Irina Bakhtina

Sustainable Development Director, RUSAL

Chief Sustainability Officer and Member of the Executive Team, RUSAL, one of the largest global producers of aluminium, including low carbon aluminum (LCA) marketed under ALLOW brand. Irina is an accomplished professional with a 30-year leadership experience in both public and private sectors varying from mass media, banking, fast moving consumer goods to metallurgy. She was instrumental to have set up such platforms as Digital, Low Carbon and Science-Based Economy Taskforce of the Foreign Investors Advisory Council (FIAC) under the auspices of the Russian Prime Minister, Sustainable Business Lab at SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management, ‘Green Brands League’ under the auspices of the Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo), and Commission on Business Ethics of the Russian Managers Association. Irina chairs Sustainability and ESG Committee of the Russian Managers Association, Environment and Climate Committee of the National ESG Alliance, and is a Vice President Sustainability in the Russian Business Ethics Network.

Tatiana Zavyalova

Senior Vice President for ESG, Sberbank

Andrey Samokhin

Chief Executive Officer, VEB.RF

Semyon Tenyaev

Founder, TenChat

Semyon Tenyaev is russian IT entrepreneur, investor, head of the VBC group of companies and founder of TenChat social network. Graduate of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Semyon held key positions in the treasuries of the Russian Agricultural Bank, Moscow Credit Bank and the leasing company Center-Capital. The best IT banker by The National Banking Journal, 2020. The Top 10 CEO rankings in the sphere of Software and Communicathons by The "Generalny director" magazine.

In 2016, Semyon has founded the VBC financial marketplace, an ecosystem for government order participants that has become a leader in the main segments of the e-procurement market, in particular, financial products.

In 2021, Semyon has founded TenChat, a social network for active people that brings together entrepreneurs, employees, freelancers and bloggers. The number of its users is more than 1 million. In April 2022, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation included TenChat in the recommended list of Russian social networks as part of import substitution.

Vladimir Shchekin

Founder, Co-owner, Rodina Group Development Company