The Finals of the Sustainable Future of Russia Platform for Young Professionals 2015
RANEPA hosted the final stage of the contest within the framework of Sustainable Future of Russia Platform for Young Professionals that took place in the convention hall at Prechistenkaya Embankment on December 21. The expert panel formed of the contest organizers ACIG Group of Companies and RANEPA, partners including Unilever, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, as well as guests representing SAP, Wikium and MASCOM Group of Companies evaluated the work of participants who successfully accomplished the Platform’s selection and educational program. The 2015 finals brought to the fore talented young people from 9 regions of Russia from Saint Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk who defended their works dedicated to four themes.
The first topic on the agenda was offered by ACIG Group of Companies and entitled “PR of the Territories: Development and Promotion of the Russian Regions’ Brand and Image”. “The finalists chose probably one of the most difficult aspects - territories promotion by increasing their tourist attractiveness”, Viktor Tolmachev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at ACIG Group of Companies, commented. “It is difficult in terms of its integrated approach: many factors have to be taken into account and specifically it should be based on the level of a region’s development, its investment appeal and the way infrastructural challenges are addressed. But in general, they have interesting start-up solutions and ideas that can further become rather solid projects”.
The second theme formulated by RANEPA referred to the role of the civil society in the social sphere assessment . “Selecting candidates’ works throughout the year, we found that many of them simply missed the subject suggested by RANEPA and failed to meet the formulated inquiry parameters”, Elena Tsatsura, senior research associate at the RANEPA Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting, explains. “The finalists’ works are after all focused on the idea to consolidate the role of the civil society and public control in the social sphere. Besides, they have the capacity for project implementation”.
The subject proposed by Unilever dubbed “Change in the Consumer Culture in Russia and Transfer to the Sustainable Consumption Concept” as the final stage showed turned out to be the most creative and at the same time understudied, that is why all the participants had to do great job to study it. Unilever claims that this subject was chosen specifically to push the participants towards in-depth research.
“We offer students and young specialists a concept currently employed by the company for its development. We are interested in fresh ideas and observations that can come from the young generation”, Irina Bakhtina, Corporate Communication Director at Unilever Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, points out.
The finals were closed with the topic “Building a Development Concept for the Crimean Federal District: from Beneficiary to Leading Region” proposed by the former Russian Ministry of Crimean Affairs, . Elena Abramova, former Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for Crimean Affairs and currently Director of the Administrative Department of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development acted as the chief expert in this field.
Summarizing results the experts gave scores to the participants that will be used to distribute the top places. The results will be announced at the awards ceremony to take place during the Gaidar Forum on January 15, 2016.
