SOCHI, September 20. /ITAR-TASS/. A record number of participants attended this year’s International Investment Forum in Sochi on the Black Sea, the official part of which ended on Saturday.
Some 9,700 participants had registered for the forum held for the 13th time in Sochi, 265 members of foreign delegations and 1,250 journalists among them, the organising committee said.
Attending the forum were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin, and 13 federal ministers.
Roundtables and discussions brought together 265 foreign investors from 47 countries. The biggest delegations came from China, Germany, Turkey, France, Switzerland, and Japan. Officials from 14 foreign diplomatic missions and consulates also took part in the forum.
Seventy-nine Russian regions presented their investment projects. The exhibition space of over 10,000 square metres was provided by the Main Olympic Media Centre renamed into Sochi Expocentre.
Six roundtables, 24 panel discussions, a business breakfast organised by Sberbank, four master classes, and thematic briefings and seminars were held. The main event was a plenary session entitled “Russia between Europe and Asia: a New Regional Policy in Modern Circumstances”, with Prime Minister Medvedev making a keynote speech.
Russian regions and companies signed 88 agreements worth about 250 billion roubles. The Krasnodar Territory, which hosted the forum, signed 310 agreements to a tune of more than 353 billion roubles.
Russian and foreign companies signed 380 billion roubles’ worth of contracts and agreements at the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Kozak said, assessing the results of the discussions held.
The next forum will take place in Sochi on September 17-19, 2015.