Challenges to integration

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Today the Gaidar Forum 2013 “Russia and the World: Challenges to Integration” begins its work in Moscow. The forum is traditionally organized by of the Russian Academy of Peoples’ Economy and Civil Service under the president of Russia. According to Vladimir Mau, the president of the Academy, the forum was initiated as an international research and practice conference devoted to acute problems of economic policy. Its permanent logo is “Russia and the World.” Last year we had the subtitle “2012-2020”, as the strategy 2020 was in focus. Two years ago it was “Challenges to Innovative Development”. This year we have “Challenges to Integration.”

According to Mau, it is a multi-faceted problem. There are formal factors. Russia chaired the APEC, it will chair the G-20 this year, the BRICS in 2014 and the G-8 in 2015. For four years Russia will chair key international organizations. The Customs Union and EurAsEC are developing in this context, which is also topical from the point of view of our agenda. That is why this year our main problem is challenges to integration. Of course, the agenda includes many questions on international competitiveness in the world and the international competitiveness of Russia in particular.

Today Premier Dmitry Medvedev will visit the forum. The Gaidar Forum was formed spontaneously and due to sad events. “For the first time we planned to hold the forum in this format in January 2010. We initiated it together with Gaidar and developed it in detail. When the forum was already ready, on December 16th 2009, Yegor Gaidar died. We decided to name the forum in his honour, i.e. dedicate it to Gaidar’s memory. And then the name began to live its own life. At that moment it was called the International Research and Practice Conference, and I didn’t believe that it would turn into the Gaidar Forum, which is a brand accepted by intellectual and political societies. One more peculiarity of the conference, the event is its research and practical character. Today in our country we have three such kinds of arrangements: business investment forums, economic forums where business plays a great role - for example, the Pyatigorsk Forum - scientific conferences held by universities and educational facilities. Our forum has a strong scientific component, but it is not overwhelming. Our main problems are socio-economic. Thus, we have a conglomerate of economists, politicians, and scientists – those who work in the sphere of applied economics. To a great extent it is a forum for experts. We invite top theorists with high quotation ratings, American and European scientists. But all of them use their knowledge for practical recommendations. They are working or have been working as consultants in their governments and international financial organizations. Therefore, our forum is first of all for scientists, experts,” Mau says.

The forum will last four days. “We always plan for three days, but it always continues into a fourth day. January 19th, the fourth day, will be dedicated to youth. Young people from 16 countries, including Africa, will arrive. We will try to form an open youth government. The open government will be an important component. The youth agenda is on Saturday. On January 16th – financial problems of integration, macroeconomic and financial problems of global markets, the global crisis, our chairmanship of the G-20, the future of reserve currencies, international currency systems and so on, and geo-economic balances.

The second day is devoted to challenges to competitiveness – trade unions, we expect Pascal Lami, the Director General of the WTO, Victor Khristenko, the chairman of the commission from the EurAsEC, Igor Shuvalov and Kairat Kelimbetov, two vice-premiers from Russia and Kazakhstan who deal with the agenda, the minister of industry Denis Manturov and some former ministers who became experts and experts who became ministers. Gref should come. Kudrin will be on the first day, financial agenda.

The third day is titled “Competition for a Human.” It is devoted to human resources. This time the main topics are education and culture. We usually have education and healthcare, but this time it's education and culture. Traditionally the anchor is Alexander Zhukov, who used to be the vice-premier on social issues. He has been the chairman of this section since 2010. We expect Olga Golodets, the vice-premier and coordinator of social policy, and Tatyana Maleva.

This year the Academy is initiating a new project and we are establishing the Institute of Social Problems as a center for human resources studies. It will be headed by Tatyana Maleva, who was the head of the Independent Institute of Social Problems and is one of the most professional experts in the sphere of social problems in our country.

Then we will have two sessions on health care. We separated them. They are dedicated to new technologies in the sphere and new organization of the healthcare system. One of interesting characteristics of the forum is that we gather all the best economic historians of the world. We will have two sessions on economic history on January 17-18, in which Neil Ferguson, Clark and Robert Alan will speak. I can speak about them a lot because they are people who have contributed to the development of economic history significantly in last 20 years, especially regarding common historic periods.”