FORUM INFO:

The III-rd Interregional Economic Forum ‘Samara Initiative: Cluster Policy as the National Economy Innovative Development Base’ will be held in Samara Region on December 4-5, 2009.

We invite you to participate in the III-rd Interregional Economic Forum ‘Samara Initiative: Cluster Policy as the National Economy Innovative Development Base’.

The Forum is organized by the Samara Region Government and the Russian Federation Ministry for Economic Development.

Over the period of two years, the Forum has become a major event in the field of cluster policy – both for the Russian participants and for our colleagues from foreign countries (Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia, USA, France, etc.). The previous two Forums enabled signing agreements on implementation of large-scale investment projects and memorandums of interaction with foreign cluster-related entities.

We have invited to the III-rd Forum about 1000 persons including directors of federal and regional governmental bodies, major Russian and transnational companies, international finance institutions, research organizations, foreign companies, and cluster-related entities.

The III-rd Interregional Economic Forum will consider topical issues of post-crisis development of the national and regional economies. The post-crisis development requires taking nontrivial decisions, abandonment of standard approaches, replacement of economy-specific thinking paradigms, and application of new techniques in management.

Cluster initiatives are able of producing the groundwork of a new Russian economics pattern, developing absolutely new competitive advantages of the regions under the globalization conditions. These initiatives can serve as an efficient mechanism of increasing competitiveness of organizations and improving the employment system.

The business part of the Forum is scheduled for two days and includes the following events:

1. Plenary meeting – panel discussion ‘Modernization of national and regional economics under conditions of world and macro-regional changes’
2. Signing agreements
3. Tour of the Samara Region innovative and investment projects exhibition:
• Flagship-type projects of Samara Region
• Innovative projects to be implemented in the interest of the Samara Region’s promising clusters
• Investment projects of the Samara Region’s municipal entities
4. Media-briefings
5. Round tables:
• ‘Educational and HR potential of the Region as a major factor of developing high-tech clusters’
• ‘Public-private partnership as a priority form of implementing the Region’s strategic projects’
• ‘Increasing competitiveness of the Povolzhye automotive cluster. Key projects’
• ‘Innovative development. Intersectoral technologies transfer’
• ‘Small business clusters as a factor of sustainable development of municipal entities and opportunity for mono-profile territories’ economic diversification’
• ‘Culture as a universal vehicle of economic development’
6. Conferences:
• International Asian-European theoretical-and-practical conference ‘Financial vehicles of cluster policy and support of cluster initiatives’
• Theoretical-and-practical conference ‘Innovative solutions for recyclable resources. Prerequisites and conditions of developing clusters for processing recyclable resources’
• International research conference ‘Nanotechnologies as a chance for sustainable development of the future economics’
• Interregional conference ‘Environment-oriented cluster policy. Ecology as a driver for modernization processes’

We are sure that the Forum’s outcomes will be of importance and value, and the elaborated proposals will facilitate efficient development of the Russian Federation’s economy and social sphere.

We will be glad to meet you at the III-rd Interregional Economic Forum ‘Samara Initiative: Cluster Policy as the National Economy Innovative Development Base’.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE OF THE FORUM