About 1,500 people registered to participate in the international 6th Sustainable Development Forum, which took place from February 17 to 21 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The forum, which brought together experts from a wide range of industries, hosted approximately 50 business events across three thematic areas: economics and investment, architecture and integrated territorial development, and tourism and hospitality.
The Kamchatka Forum is a network event of the International Tourism Forum "Travel!"—an important national tourism event and one of the main business platforms in the Russian Far East. Participants included representatives of federal and regional government agencies, development institutions, entrepreneurs, and experts. Guests from 25 Russian regions and three foreign countries—India, Ghana, and Peru—came to the peninsula. "In total, we estimate that we spent approximately 200 hours here (at the forum venues – Ed.) debating, analyzing various situations, discussing, delivering reports, and presenting. More than 1,500 people from 25 regions of the Russian Federation participated in the forum, both offline and online, and 230 people came to the peninsula from other regions of Russia," said Leonid Agafonov, Program Director of the 6th Sustainable Development Forum.
This year, an architectural track was included in the forum's business program for the first time.
"We can confidently say that thanks to the forum, we will develop a common understanding of how to implement urban projects in challenging climatic conditions, taking into account regional specifics, federal standards, local community initiatives, and business engagement. We will certainly analyze everything that was discussed at the forum and share it with the municipalities accordingly." "It's also important to note that all forum events were held online, and those who couldn't attend will be able to watch them at any time," said Ekaterina Korzh, Minister of Architecture and Urban Development of Kamchatka Krai.
The architecture track included panel sessions and roundtables dedicated to sharing best regional practices in creating competence centers, formulating integrated territorial development projects, and implementing master plans for the development of Far Eastern cities. Also highlighted were issues of landscaping in urban development projects, principles of engaging residents in territorial development projects, and feedback tools.
The forum's tourism and hospitality program included more than 20 business events dedicated to exchanging experiences on a wide range of topics. These included the development of cruise and all-terrain tourism, the secrets to successful event tourism, and trends in the development of popular science tourism. The sessions also discussed issues of developing tourism infrastructure, including transportation, hotels, and hiking trails.
"This is the sixth year the forum has been held." "It was originally conceived as a tourism forum, but a few years ago we added an investment agenda because we believed that developing tourism infrastructure without investment was impossible. This year, we introduced an innovation: an entire architectural module was added. We were, of course, somewhat apprehensive about this, but it fit seamlessly into the forum's program. People who came to the forum from other regions noted that they didn't even notice the line between investment and architecture, in the form of creating a favorable environment for residents of the region, and investment itself. Our program directorate succeeded in creating an engaging agenda that brought together so many participants from across the country," said Vladimir Rusanov, Minister of Tourism of the Kamchatka Territory.
The third track of the forum's business program was economics and investment, with an emphasis on improving the investment climate in the regions. Leaders of the National Investment Climate Rating shared their experiences at the forum's venues. "Representatives from the Volgograd Region, the Leningrad Region, Nizhny Novgorod, and the Minister of Economic Development of Primorsky Krai responded to our invitation. Our colleagues came to us and shared their experiences. ... We certainly identified certain areas of focus following the forum that we hadn't focused on due to a lack of intentionality, and we will pursue them in the future," noted Alexander Mylnikov, head of the Kamchatka Krai Development Corporation. He added that following the forum, the regional development institute signed cooperation agreements with the Volgograd Region and the city of Monchegorsk, as well as with Peruvian entrepreneurs—Corporacion Kajatt Vaccari—regarding their participation in the development of a future yacht port in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Partnership sessions organized with the support of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Roszapovedtsentr of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, the Roscongress Foundation, and the National Priorities Autonomous Non-Profit Organization (ANPO) significantly contributed to the richness of the business program. The educational track was presented by a series of master classes, seminars.
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