On the initiative оf Center-invest Bank and with its financial support, the Rostov Region Department of the Federal State Statistics Service has produced a statistical report, "The Rostov Region — Progress Towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals."

This is the world’s first comprehensive analysis of a region’s progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the 193 member states of the United Nations.

The official launch of the report will be held in Rostov-on-Don on 5 June 2019 at 11.00am in the Financial Literacy Centre (16 Voroshilovsky Avenue). Marina Samoilova, head of the Rostov Region Department of the Federal State Statistics Service, and Dr Vasily Vysokov, chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Board of Directors, will be attending the event.

The report draws on official statistical data from government bodies and open sources: the Russian Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System (EMISS), United Nations websites, the Federal State Statistics Service, the government of the Rostov Region, and a report on human development in the Russian Federation produced by the Russian Government’s Analytical Centre ("The UN Sustainable Development Goals in Russia").

The findings of this research again confirm the global competitive advantages of the Rostov region as a sustainable development region.

"The Rostov region’s entrepreneurs can now assess their local business in terms of global development and present it to foreign colleagues and partners using modern terminology which is more familiar to them," said Dr Vysokov. "As well as having their knowledge and projects assessed in the form of grades, students from the region’s universities can now also see to what extent they are contributing to global economic development."

Modern global investment markets are increasingly making decisions on the basis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. This was the approach taken by Center-invest Bank as it developed its new Strategy for 2019-2021. The bank has presented its new strategy in leading European financial centres and it was of considerable interest to investors.When writing its Strategy, the bank created a table showing how its products and services contribute to achieving the different Sustainable Development Goals. For each entry in the table, there is a description of specific measures to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals using bank products and services:

for the POPULATION (loans, deposit accounts, cards, payments and services);

for BUSINESSES (loans and services, including modern electronic services, and loans for small business, for the renovation of apartment buildings, and to meet new requirements regarding housing construction);

for CORPORATE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (developing the operational system, introducing modern banking technologies, information security, risk management, corporate culture, staff training) and social projects.

The bank’s Strategy also combines Russia’s national projects and the global sustainable development goals. The close intertwining of national and global goals in Center-invest Bank’s work means affordable loans for retail customers, support for education and science, the development of small business, promoting innovation, new financial technologies, and the digital economy, and facilitating international trade and partnership for the purposes of sustainable development.

Center-invest Bank has also shown how its products and services interlink with the Bank of Russia’s strategic goals for developing the financial market, financial technologies and financial inclusion. This interlinkage increases competitiveness and allows the bank to position itself in the banking services market as a benchmark, pilot, case study and success story.

The full report "The Rostov Region — Progress Towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals" is available on the bank’s website (www.centrinvest.ru/SDGs).