MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The Russian Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs [RUIE] is opening the annual Week of Russian Business on Monday, RUIE President Alexander Shokhin told TASS.
From Monday through Thursday, eight business forums, several roundtables and a session of the Valdai international discussions club will be held at Moscow’s downtown Ritz-Carlton hotel. The Valdai club members are expected to focus on integration of the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as ASEAN and APEC.
On Friday, the conclusive day of the Week of Russian Business, the RUIE will hold a congress. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend it.
On February 5 and February 6, the RUIE holds a cycle of events that will center on proposals for efficient collaboration between the government and the business community. One of the forums will be devoted to the fiscal system and one more forum, to the banking and financial system.
A separate conference will discuss the scaling down of administrative and supervisory burdens on business.
The RUIE is also going to raise the problems of ecology and international economic cooperation and to hold a specialized social forum.
"In the context of the new political cycle and preparation of proposals [by the cabinet of ministers] that will concern, among other things, a budgetary maneuver towards the social sector and human resources, we surely can’t bypass these topics," Shokhin said in a comment on the social agenda of the week.
The itinerary also features a conference on technical regulations and efforts to suppress the flows of counterfeit commodities both inside and outside of the European Economic Union.
This year’s new topic is digitalization of the economy. It will be discussed at a foresight session on Tuesday and at a conference on digital transformation.
"We set up a committee for digital transformation of the economy last year," Shokhin said. "Considering a program the government adopted in that sphere and the interest toward the transformation processes shown by many companies, we’ll probably make digital transformation a permanent topic of our discussions."
Vladimir Putin traditionally takes part in RUIE congresses. This year will not be an exception, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
The RUIE hopes contacts with Putin will be held in the traditional formats, Shokhin said. "I mean he will address the congress, will listen to several speeches and will comment on them, and after that the newly formed RUIE bureau will hopefully have an opportunity for an informal meeting with the President behind closed doors," he said.
"We hope the President sees some opportunities in this format as regards giving us information on his plans, while the business quarters will certainly have an opportunity to discuss the most sensitive issues in an informal mode," Shokhin said.