On 25 September Center-invest Bank hosted a joint meeting of the Rostov Region Public Chamber’s Commission for Economic Development, Enterprise and Innovation and the Board of the Rostov Region Employers’ Union. The main item on the agenda was: Developing a Partnership Between Business and the Authorities in Establishing and Implementing a Strategy for the Socio-Economic Development of the Rostov Region for the Period to 2030.

The Russian government is already working on its strategy for the country’s socio-economic development for the period to 2030. Russia’s regions are also to produce and submit their own strategies to 2030. Young people in the Rostov region have been actively engaged in this process. However, the current situation is so complex that it requires fundamentally new methodological and organisational approaches to addressing strategic issues.

The Rostov Region’s Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Lyubov Zhadan, gave a report entitled “Developing a Partnership Between Business and the Authorities in Establishing and Implementing a Strategy for the Socio-Economic Development of the Rostov Region for the Period to 2030.” Ms Zhadan noted that the main aim of the 2030 Strategy should be to increase the prosperity of the Rostov Region’s population by increasing employment and engaging the population in the most productive sectors of the economy. To achieve this, the priority must be to assess the current situation and to answer those questions that will allow us to envisage the Rostov region of the future.

Ms Zhadan said, “We can consider using the concept of sustainable development as the conceptual basis of our strategy, because sustainable development is the most progressive strategic planning concept in all of the most advanced countries.”

Dr Vasily Vysokov, who is both chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Board of Directors and chairman of the Rostov Region Public Chamber’s Commission for Economic Development, Enterprise and Innovation Commission, presented the results of the study “Strategic Thinking: the Me and the World in 2030 project”.

“We are producing a strategy to 2030, but those people who will be living and working here in 2030 are not involved in this work,” Dr Vysokov said. “Therefore, as well as the strategic requirements set by the federal authorities and the current initiatives of Rostov region employers, today we must take into account young people’s views about their future. I am confident that in this process we will find a balanced, effective and very innovative solution for the Rostov region.”

The meeting was also attended by Sergei Ryzenko, president of the Rostov Region Employers’ Union, Nikolai Prisyazhnyuk, president of the Rostov Region’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Victor Netesanov, Vice President of the Rostov Region Employers’ Union, and representatives of higher education institutions, civil society organisations, businesses, and the media.