The parliament hackathon «Regional Legislative Activity in the Economy of Transformation» was held at «Boiling Point» coworking space. The hackathon was organised by the Legislative Assembly of Rostov Region and Center-invest Bank. The participants are deputies of the new 7th convocation of the Don Parliament.

The hackathon format is widely used in the IT industry — it is a competition between teams to find solutions of a stated problem using digital technologies. At the parliament hackathon, the deputies developed law-making initiatives to address existing economic and social problems in the region.

«As the new composition of the Don Parliament was renewed by almost 60%, it takes some getting used to. We realise that new people mean new ideas and new approaches. A new understanding of old experience and the problems that face society, citizens, enterprises, economy today,» commented Alexander Ischenko, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region.

The hackathon opened with an overview lecture «The Economics of Transformations» by Vasily Vysokov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Center-invest Bank, Professor, Doctor of Economics. The deputies learnt about the special aspects of management in the transformation economy (constant changes in the context of continuous crises) and the transformation trends.

«In order to ensure continuity and consistency of the work of deputies in constant transformations, the hackathon is the optimal format to conduct a combat training of the newly elected parliament, to get, to study the main directions of transformations, and to master new law making technologies in the conditions of transformations,» specified Vasily Vysokov, Chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Board of Directors, Professor, Doctor of Economics.

The strategy session was attended by deputies of all factions of the Don Parliament of the new convocation. First, the participants of the hackathon recognised the importance of individual areas of transformation from the point of view of their electors’ mandates. Almost all areas received high marks: 7 to 9 points.

The deputies were divided into teams on the most important sectors for the region: economy, budget, small- and medium-sized entrepreneurship, culture and education, health care, as well as housing services and utilities, roads and transport. Each team had to identify the most effective and useful for the residents of the Rostov Region ways to transform these areas. The deputies assessed the submitted draft legislative initiatives by electronic voting. All projects received high scores.

However the assessment of importance of individual areas of transformation in the legislative initiatives proposed by the deputies was more differentiated. The readiness of the parliamentary body to perform the transformation of the legislation exceeded the voters’ expectations. The deputies of the Don Parliament have shown high readiness for the transformation of business, small-sized enterprises, investment, the work of regulatory authorities, issues of development strategy and economic mechanisms.

The participants of the strategy session agreed that there is a lot of work to be done to implement transformation in all areas.