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St. Petersburg Economic Forum participants to discuss new digital technologies

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Participants in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to be held in early June will proactively discuss such topics as the fourth industrial revolution and new digital technologies, Foreign Investment Advisory Council (FIAC) coordinator and Ernst & Young (EY) Managing Partner for Russia Alexander Ivlev told TASS on Friday.

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"The most important is that technology companies will also be present and that many discussions will be held exactly in the field of new digital technologies, the fourth industrial revolution, and the path Russia can forge in this segment," Ivlev said.

Companies from industrial, energy and banking sectors will traditionally have extensive representation at the Forum, Ivlev said. "As practice shows, about 80-90% of companies participating in the Foreign Investment Advisory Council (FIAC) attend the Forum at a high level. It was a pleasure to see communicating top executives of such companies as ExxonMobil and BP last year. The participation level is very high and we expect the Forum will remain at such high level in this year," he said.

A range of topics interesting for investors is currently under review. In particular, these are pharmaceuticals, foreign investments and development of competitive economy. "All of them are currently at the elaboration stage. We expect bilateral meetings and meetings in a broad format of participants. The international agenda is here to stay: globalization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, US and European agendas - all of them are present at the Forum," Ivlev added.

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