The leaders of the Roscongress Foundation and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have met in Vienna, Austria.

UNIDO Managing Director for Programme Development and Technical Cooperation (acting Director General) Philippe Scholtès welcomed the Roscongress Foundation delegation on behalf of Director General of UNIDO Li Yong at the UNIDO headquarters in Vienna.

“The primary objective of our meeting is to search for common ground and potential areas of cooperation between the Roscongress Foundation and UNIDO. Our organizations already work closely together, and the issues that are on the agenda today indicate that we will go even further in our cooperation and engagement”, Scholtès said.

“Roscongress and UNIDO have a successful and diverse history of cooperation. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June of this year, we had the honour of hosting widely representative delegations of participants from two interregional UNIDO forums dedicated to cooperation between small- and medium-sized enterprises in Russia and Latin America as well as women’s entrepreneurship in Europe and Arab countries. Both events were a great success”, Roscongress Foundation CEO Alexander Stuglev said. “At the same time, we understand that our organizations have the potential to establish ongoing cooperation on a broader range of projects and initiatives”.

The sides exchanged views on the potential for further engagement, established working contacts, and identified common interests and new avenues for mutual growth.

In particular, they spoke about possible options for cooperation as part of Russian and foreign events organized by Roscongress and UNIDO, including the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the SPIEF visiting sessions in the Russian regions ‘Russia’s Regions: New Areas of Growth’ and SPIEF sessions abroad, the Eastern Economic Forum as well as the Global Forum of Convergent Technologies for Comprehensive and Sustainable Industrial Development in cooperation with the Kurchatov Institute (2018) and the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit (2019).

A partnership is also possible in organizing the event ‘Progressive Technologies Week’ scheduled for 6-9 March 2018 in Chile.

UNIDO representatives expressed interest in participating in the Russian Investment Forum, which will be held in Sochi on 15–16 February 2018. The officials also discussed the possible presentation of three technologies in precision agriculture by Brazil, Argentina, and Chile on the forum sidelines. UNIDO also plans to expand cooperation with Roscongress at SPIEF 2018, which will be held in St. Petersburg on 24–26 June 2018: the organization expressed a desire to continue discussing the theme of women’s entrepreneurship on the sidelines of the forum and to hold the third interregional forum ‘Strengthening International SME Alliances between the Russian Federation and Latin America and the Caribbean’ with the broader presence of technical experts who will discuss technical clusters in the agriculture sector.

The meeting participants also devoted special attention to cooperation in analytical and expert assessment projects: attracting well-known experts and qualified speakers to events and providing expert support for the activities of the Roscongress Foundation.

The Roscongress Foundation is a major organizer of convention and exhibition events.

The Roscongress Foundation was founded in 2007 to develop Russia’s economic potential and strengthen the country’s image by organizing congresses and exhibitions with an economic and social focus. The Foundation develops the substantive content for these events, and provides companies with advice, information, and expert guidance, as well as offering comprehensive evaluation, analysis, and coverage of the Russian and global economic agenda.

Today, its annual programme includes events held from Montevideo to Vladivostok, offering an opportunity to bring together global business leaders, experts, the media, and government officials in one place, creating favourable conditions for dialogue and the promotion of new ideas and projects, and assisting in the creation of social enterprise and charity projects.

www.roscongress.org