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11.01.2017

Experts to Discuss Smart City Concept

The panel discussion “Smart Cities: Opportunities to Improve the Population’s Quality of Life and Solve Infrastructural Problems of Russian Cities” is to take place on January 14th within the Gaidar Forum 2017. The event is organized by ACIG Group of Companies to discuss the Smart City concept.

In global practice, Smart City Technologies have become an essential attribute of successful and effective long-term planning for the development of urban infrastructure in global cities. A number of ambitious projects in this field have already been implemented in China, the USA, the United Arab Emirates and some EU countries. They brought positive social and economic effects and improved the population’s quality of life. It is not surprising that in recent days officials of the Russian Federation have shown a keen interest both at the federal and regional levels. Pilot projects are being implemented to improve best practices.

At the same time, it is obvious that there are gaps that slow down the processes of implementing Smart City Technologies in Russia. For example, a lack of information and competencies in the field of innovative technologies, intellectualization of urban infrastructure systems, a lack of effective approaches to strategic planning of urban development and pre-investment feasibility study in Smart City Technologies. There is also insufficient flexibility of bureaucratic systems in cities and regions that requires to involve all the necessary parties for developing and implementing Smart City Technologies (administration of cities, population, urban planning experts, providers of technologies and solutions, representatives of business and science) and launching real projects.

It is planned to discuss best international and domestic practices at the panel discussion in order to implement Smart City Technologies, solve current problems and remove barriers that hinder their implementation in Russia.

The panel discussion was moderated by Anna Makarova, Director of Change Management Practice at Alliance Consulting, Maksim Ageyev, Director of Global Directorate for Services in Energy and Sustainable Development at Schneider Electric. Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Aleksey Kozyrev; Deputy Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation Andrey Chibis; Head of Administration of Municipal Entity “The City of Astrakhan” Oleg Polumordvinov; Governor of the Ulyanovsk Oblast Svetlana Openysheva; Corporate Relations Director at Saint-Gobain CIS Vitaly Bogachenko; Technical Director of Smarter Cities at IBM in Central and Eastern Europe Nikolay Marin; Deputy General Director at SAP CIS Dmitri Shepelyaviy; Director of the Center for Urban Studies at Skolkovo Business School Ksenia Mokrushina; Head of Innovation and Digital Technologies Vladimir Korovkin; Vice President of Mastercard Galina Ganeeva; Head of Critical Infrastructure Protection at Kaspersky Lab Andrey Suvorov; Business Development Manager, ISV Cloud Solutions Government & CityNext at Microsoft Aleksandr Danilin; Development Director for Business and Investment, Segment Housing Russia, YIT Group Artak Makaryan; Head of the Institute of Industry Management at RANEPA Elena Ivankina; Sales Director at ThyssenKrupp Elevator Vladimir Stoppel, and Head of New Installations Sales&Operations BU Europe Africa at ThyssenKrupp Elevator Hans Sacherer were invited to participate in the event.