For the first time, the St. Petersburg Economic Forum took place in 1997 and until the mid-2000s was practically local. In 2005, the then head of the Ministry of Economic Development German Gref began to actively and successfully lobby the forum as an international platform.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012 was held from 21 to 23 June and turned out to be the most contract-intensive. SPIEF signed agreements worth 360 billion rubles. The number of participants exceeded 5, 3 thousand people. 1139 journalists from 30 countries covered the work of the forum. This year the motto of the event was “Effective Leadership”. The program included round tables, panel discussions, debates on topical issues of the modern economy.
The main event of the first day of the forum was the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he set a red thread for the subsequent discussions - Russia's revenues must be torn off the price of oil and gas so as not to depend on the oil and gas pipe. Even representatives of the raw material monopolies did not argue with this. But the main news from the president was the emergence of an ombudsman in Russian business, a man whose duty is to protect businessmen from the arbitrariness of officials. The name of the first Russian business ombudsman was also announced here, the head of Delovaya Rossiya and the general director of Abrau Dyurso, Boris Titov.
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev promised to change the mentality of the police, who today are inclined to "nightmare" business.
But nevertheless, the main events at the forum were not political or economic statements, but the signing of agreements, which have been talked about since the beginning of the year. For example, Rosneft has agreed to jointly develop fields with the Italian company Eni and the Norwegian company Statoil. Gazprom and French EdF will jointly build and buy gas-fired power plants in Europe, which the Russian company intends to supply with fuel.
Russian and Belarusian manufacturers of trucks - KAMAZ and MAZ - announced their merger. The United Shipbuilding Corporation has agreed with the Korean STX to build a new generation of gas carriers. They will be built near St. Petersburg at the Novoadmiralteyskaya shipyard. The forum did not become a sensational one, but it was fruitful.
