8th int’l economic forum opens in St Pete Tuesday
ITAR-TASS, Russia
June 15 2004
ST PETERSBURG, June 15 (Itar-Tass) – The 8th Petersburg international
economic forum opens here on Tuesday under the motto of “Effective
Economy — Decent Life”. The forum has been organised by the
Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), the Federation Council upper house of the Russian parliament
with the participation of the Government of the Russian Federation
and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Heads of Government, parliament chiefs, the leaders of international
organisations, and members of the economic and political elites of
a number of countries will attend a plenary meeting, which will be
broadcast in the Internet. A keynote report is to be delivered by
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
Participants in the three-day forum are to devote special attention
to matters concerning economic growth and the quality of life
under globalisation conditions, the development of the European
Union’s economic relations with Russia and other CIS countries, the
economic and social reform processes, the development of contemporary
information technologies, the attraction of investments, accession of
new countries to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). These and other
matters will be discussed at both plenary sessions and at the forum’s
26 roundtable meetings, some of which will take place in Moscow.
The forum’s programme also provides for a CIS business congress that
will deal with an analysis of the development of interaction within
the CIS business community, including that concerning support for and
the protection of the interests of small and medium-sized businesses,
the expansion of cooperation in the fair-and-exhibition activities,
deeper interaction between State and public organisations of CIS
countries within the framework of negotiations for accession to the
WTO. At the close of the congress, the participating businessmen are
expected to adopt a Final Statement.
At the Mikhailovsky Manege exhibition center, there will be also
exhibitions-and-presentation of the economic resources of Russia’s
Southern Federal District, the Republic of Armenia, and the Czech
Republic, and an exhibition on the theme of “The Mineral and Raw
Material Resources of CIS Countries”.