The Final Day of the VII Gaidar Forum

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On the third day of the conference the morning panel discussion – The Future of the Impossible – was held. The moderator of the discussion was Alexei Komissarov, Director of the Fund for Development of Industry.

A sweeping industrial revolution creates principally new technological markets and business models which were impossible as early as 15 years ago. At present, technologies have an unprecedented effect on personal and public space of individuals’ life and transform the way people live, work and communicate. Participants in the discussion were asked to answer the following questions: how new technologies will change our life in the near future and what advantages and risks are related to a large-scale introduction of such technologies; what extent of the effect of industrial automation on the future of the labor market and development of the global economy is going to be; what services of new technological markets will be required the most by an average consumer; how emerging business models are going to influence our life and what Russia’s role and place in a global technological mode change is.

The session was addressed by Mikhail Kovalchuk, Director of the Kurchatovsky Institute Research Center, Anatoly Chubais, Chairman of the Board of OOO UK ROSNANO, Pavel Betsis, President of the ООО MicrosoftRus, Nikilai Nikiforov, RF Minister for Communications and the Mass Media and German Gref, Chairman of the Board of the Sberbank.

Robert Farish, Vice President of the IDC Russia and the CIS, Alexander Lvovsky, Head of the Kvantovaya Optica Group of the Russian Quantum Center and Audrey de Grey, a British gerontologist took part in the discussion as experts.

The moderator of the noon expert discussion – Russian Schools: Looking to the Future – was Anton Molev, Chairman of the Education Commission of the Moscow State Duma. The session was attended by Natalia Tretyak, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Isaak Kalina, Minister of the Moscow Government and Head of the Education Department of the City of Moscow; Marat Ziganov, Research Supervisor of the Moscow Lomonosov School, Sergei Mendelevich, Principal of School No.57 and Igor Remorenko, Rector of the Moscow City Teacher’s University. Invited as experts were Sergei Myasoedov, Professor and Director of the Institute of Business and Business Administration of the RANEPA, President of the Russian Business Education Association, Veronika Burmakina, Principal of School No.1329 and Elena Sporysheva, Principal of Upper Secondary School No.1306.

At the session, a wide range of issues dealing with both education process and a moral and ethical aspect were discussed. Those issues included among other things the following: how to avoid a situation in which schools may lose a value focus in the turbulence period; how to help principals and teachers not to get lost in the sea of innovations and pseudo-innovations; how to help a school student learn to think and not memorize if they are taught to memorize and not think; what a textbook is to be like in the era of information explosion and Wikipedia; how to help school-leavers become successful in new conditions, what is more important to the country: school-leavers whose aim is to become leaders and set new records or members of society prepared to social adaptation and “small human happiness”; what relation between the knowledge of the native and foreign languages should be in the present-day world and how many languages one should have a command of for work in Russia; where it is better to get training: in Russia or abroad; how to overcome the crisis of teachers’ competence; what risks are involved in replacement of the project method by bright presentation pictures ; how to smooth over differences with a view to new federal state education standards and training for the single state exams.

Also, a round table dedicated to the prospects for the global e-commerce market in Russia was held under the chairmanship of Wang Li, General Director of the Worldview Global Consulting and Andiana Annie, Editor-in-Chief of the East-West Digital News. Participants in the discussion were Mark Zavadsky, General Director of the Alibaba Russia; Victor Syu, Vice President of the JD.COM Russia; Vladimir Dolgov, General Director of the eBay Russia; Vladimir Samarov, Head of the International Marketing Department of OZON.RU; Alexander Ivanov, President of the National E-Commerce Association; Alexander Vasilyev, Head of the SPSR-EXPRESS International Development Department; Alexei Feyodorov, President of the Association of Internet-Trade Companies, Managing Partner of GK 220 Volt;  Alexei Degtyarev, General Director of the V2V-Center E-Commerce Site; Sergei Malyshev, Deputy General Director of the Russian Post in Mail Order and Express Delivery Business Line.

In the period of economic difficulties, the internal e-commerce market in Russia grew by 30% in 2014, while the trans-border segment nearly doubled. Experts discussed the prospects, changes and lines of development of that market in future and challenges of growing cooperation between Russia and China in e-commerce, in particular, in V2C and V2V sectors, logistics-related problems and potential advantages. Also, participants answered the question whether western companies operating on the e-commerce market may “lose” Russia as Chinese online retailers play a key role on the Russian market in that sector and if Russia can export its goods and services via online channels.

Маrina Turuntseva, Director of the RANEPA’s Center for Macroeconomic Forecasting and Deputy Head of the Short-Term Forecasting of the Gaidar Institute held an expert round table – Problems of Forecasting and Simulation of the Labor Market in Russia – and asked participants to discuss the following issues: to what extent the Russian statistics reflects the real state of things on the labor market; instruments and factors of simulation of the labor market in Russia; models and methods of labor market forecasting; forecasting of the 2016 employment and unemployment indices.

Participants in the round table discussion were Evsei Gurvich, Head of the Economic Expert Group, Alexander Shirov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Forecasting of the National Economy of the Russian Academy of Sciences;  Vladimir Salnikov, Deputy General Director of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, Yuri Achkasov, Leading Economist of the Department of Development of Macroeconomic Scenarios of the Monetary Policy  of the Monetary policy Department of the Central Bank of Russia and Yekaterina Astafyeva, Senior Researcher of the RANEPA’s Center for Macroeconomic Forecasting.

Also, an expert round table – Quality Control of Cadastral Valuation: Implications for Government Administration and Taxation – was held. The moderator of that round table was Natalia Kornienko, Head of the Department of Development of the Fiscal System of the Gaidar Institute.

Participants in the round table discussion were Pavel Romanov, Head of the ASI Working Group on Monitoring of the Progress in Implementation  of  the Road Map: Upgrading of the Quality of Public Services in the Field of State Cadastral Records and Registration of Titles to Real Property and Operations with It; Marina Karpova,  Public Ombudsman on Issues Related to Liquidation of Violations of Entrepreneurs’ Rights in the Field of Cadastral Registration, Land Relations and Proprietary Rights under the Business Rights Commissioner; Viktor Zhurba, Deputy Chairman of  the Committee on Entrepreneurship in Real Property Economy of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce and General Director of  the OOO KPI Holding; Vladislav Murashov, General Director of GUP MO Mobti; Vladimir Zhukovsky, Deputy Director of the property Relations Department of the Ministry of Defense; Nikolai Volovich, Doctor of Economics, Professor of the University of Finance under the Government of the Russian Federation;  Larisa Usovich, Deputy Chairman of  the Committee on Entrepreneurship in Real Property Economy on Issues of State Registration of Titles and Cadastral Records of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce  of the Russian Federation; Sergei Gavrilov, Chairman of the Committee on Property  of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Yuri Lavryakov, Head of the Valuation Department  of the Minimosoblimuschestvo,  Member  of the Committee on Contestation of  Cadastral Value in the Moscow Region; Andrei Berestyansky, Head of the Valuation Department of  the Rosreestr; Vadim Pirushin, Head of  the Directorate of Sales of the OAO Rossiisky Auktsionny Dom; Yuri Bogatyrev, Assistant to the Chairman of the Committee on Entrepreneurship in the Economy at the Chamber of Trade and Commerce  of the Russian Federation; Valentina Solodovnikova, Expert in Simulation and Mass Evaluation, Participant in a Number of International Projects and Consultant of the OOO Center for Analysis of Real Property Markets.

The discussion permitted to consider comprehensively cadastral registration, property titles registration, cadastral valuation and land and property taxation as instruments and measures (of the authorities) ensuring the balance of interests of business and households as regards development of territories, entrepreneurship and investments through cadastral valuation and formulate  proposals  – approved by participants on the basis of common understanding  (diagnostics) of problems and implications  – on the required measures.

Effective taxation of land and property ensures achievement of goals of development of territories by means of such evaluation of the tax base and adjustment of rates and privileges that permit (as perceived by most taxpayers) to carry out justified distribution of a tax burden. The balance of interests of investors, property owners and budgets is ensured through growth in the tax base: investments and upgrade of property can ensure regions’ stable tax revenues. The tax base is determined on the basis of a cadastral value.

In its turn, a cadastral value is the output of cadastral valuation. Cadastral valuation brings the cadastral value as much closer as possible in economic terms to the market value across the aggregate of the appraised units.  Contestation of the outputs of cadastral valuation partially compensates errors, but increases aggregate public costs related to a substandard valuation.
The quality of cadastral valuation is ensured by compliance with the requirements to outputs and the process. Requirements to outputs are justified by understanding of the admissible error as regards the entire aggregate of appraised units with taking into account problems related to the quality of cadastral valuation which problems both consumers and providers of valuation services are aware of.

During the expert discussion, answers were given to the questions listed in the agenda of that session.  In particular, Pavel Romanov pointed out that a property unit should contribute to development of a territory by attracting investments. Vladimir Zhukovsky stressed the importance of introduction of transparent procedures and a unified mechanism of cadastral valuation, updating and adjustment of registration details, as well as legitimacy of the entire mechanism. Representatives of the Moscow Region took an active part in the discussion by delivering reports. Also, representatives of the Tver Region presented their views on the above issues. As a result of the expert discussion, a resolution with proposals was developed.  

Аndrei Simonov, Head of the Department of Empiric Research in Investments and Financial Markets of the Gaidar Institute held an expert discussion: The Problems and Prospects in the Development of the Asset Management Market. Participant in the discussion were Alexander Abramov, Professor of the Stock Market  and Investment Market Department of the NRU HSE;  Dmitri Alexandrov, President of the National League of Managers,  Philip Gabunia, Director of the Department of Collective Investments and Trust Management of the Central Bank of Russia; Alexei Goryaev, Professor and Director of the Master of Finance Program of the New Economic School; Oleg Yakubov, Director of Structural Products  of the UK Sberbank Asset Management; Evgeni Romanov, Head of the Department of Development of Investment Products  – Managing Director of the Portfolio Investment Department of the Gasprombank (AO).

The participants discussed the following issues: collective investment instruments as a driver of economic growth: international experience and the first 20 years of Russian experience; the current situation and points of growth in collective investments of retail investors;  financial literacy and investment competence  are the way to growth in collective investment volumes; new types of investment products for domestic investors; approaches to evaluation of performance of investment funds; trends and innovations in regulation of  the trust management market.