A socially oriented non-financial development institution and a major organizer of nationwide and international conventions; exhibitions; and business, public, youth, sporting, and cultural events.

The Roscongress Foundation is a socially oriented non-financial development institution and a major organizer of nationwide and international conventions; exhibitions; and business, public, youth, sporting, and cultural events. It was established in pursuance of a decision by the President of the Russian Federation.

The Foundation was established in 2007 with the aim of facilitating the development of Russia’s economic potential, promoting its national interests, and strengthening the country’s image. One of the roles of the Foundation is to comprehensively evaluate, analyse, and cover issues on the Russian and global economic agendas. It also offers administrative services, provides promotional support for business projects and attracting investment, helps foster social entrepreneurship and charitable initiatives.

Each year, the Foundation’s events draw participants from 209 countries and territories, with more than 15,000 media representatives working on-site at Roscongress’ various venues. The Foundation benefits from analytical and professional expertise provided by 5,000 people working in Russia and abroad.

The Foundation works alongside various UN departments and other international organizations, and is building multi-format cooperation with 212 economic partners, including industrialists’ and entrepreneurs’ unions, financial, trade, and business associations from 86 countries worldwide, and 293 Russian public organizations, federal and regional executive and legislative bodies of the Russian Federation.

The Roscongress Foundation has Telegram channels in Russian t.me/Roscongress, English – t.me/RoscongressDirect, Spanish – t.me/RoscongressEsp and Arabic t.me/RosCongressArabic. Official website and Information and Analytical System of the Roscongress Foundation:roscongress.org.

Olga Skorobogatova

Olga Skorobogatova

First Deputy Governor, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)
Quotes
16.06.2023
SPIEF 2023
Russian Banking on the Path of Sovereign Development: Realignment for Advancement
In the next five years, we can anticipate the international payment infrastructure transitioning from SWIFT to the integration of national digital currencies. Integration agreements between major countries will be established. We have already laid the foundation for an industrial platform here. <...> Once the relevant legislation is passed, we will commence real transactions using the digital rouble. Additionally, we are engaging in discussions with countries that are developing their own national digital currencies to explore potential integrations
16.06.2023
SPIEF 2023
Russian Banking on the Path of Sovereign Development: Realignment for Advancement
What are the deficiencies and weaknesses we face? We lack a comprehensive system-wide [software – Ed.] infrastructure and hardware equipment. <...> We must address these challenges urgently, without delay. <...> We need to find solutions within the next 2–3 years
16.06.2022
SPIEF 2022
The Future of Banks: The Transformation of Business Opportunities
It is important that we are all geared, in the good sense of the word, to making it convenient, comfortable, reliable and preferably cheaper for the public and businesses. The battle for clients, also in a good sense, is rising to a new level. When, on the one hand, we can truly, as synergy between state services and commercial ones, really supplement one another when it comes to services quality and opportunities. A unified mobile app – it was stated categorially a couple of years ago that this should not even be considered as the unique perception of each participant’s mobile app would disappear. I think we are now reaching a different level of understanding. It is not a question of the mobile app but of the service provided by each participant. Maybe some unified mobile app should also be created
16.06.2022
SPIEF 2022
The Future of Banks: The Transformation of Business Opportunities
I cannot but agree that we really should update law 115-FZ. It has played its part but everything changes and we are working with Rosfinmonitoring on this. Some things can be changed to no one’s detriment, the limit reviewed, for instance. There are other things, let’s say rules that really need modernizing to preclude an excessive load on financial institutions. Also archiving. As the Central Bank we have trying for five years to advance this law; we are not initiators but rather inspirers. We would like to see it passed this year. Keeping paper documents for 3–5 years is impossible, like the Stone Age
16.06.2022
SPIEF 2022
The Future of Banks: The Transformation of Business Opportunities
The subject was touched on that, considering the IT solutions available on the market, all of us – regulators and banks and IT companies, have come up against the fact that, despite our good position when it comes to software, in general created by Russian companies and developers, out situation is not so good with respect to systemic software and hardware. Something needs to be done about this – and fast. We have had preliminary talks with some market players and they all gave their support. We have an association of financial digital technologies and we would like, together with the Ministry for Digitalization, financial institutions with IT companies, first of all to make proper repositories for all existing and operating solutions on the Russian market. Because, ridiculously, banks come to us asking where to find IT solutions. IT companies go to the Ministry for Digitalization asking where to find clients. We believe that, in the fourth quarter of this year, we will set up a repository [storage facility – Ed.] it will take the following shape: there will be tested, proven IT solutions for all the functions of banks and financial agents. But, when it comes to systemic software and hardware, it is the manufacturers that should be approached to launch all the requisite production
16.06.2022
SPIEF 2022
The Future of Banks: The Transformation of Business Opportunities
We see that, even though our payment system and the Mir payment system, SPFS and FPS were created and launched as an alternative and competitive payment systems to the international ones, as soon as the events of 24 February occurred, within five days they took on the load connected with the international payment systems withdrawing. And, frankly speaking, if we hadn’t been prepared in advance to process all the operations in the country, you can understand what the situation would have been. And what were our, let’s say, unfriendly colleagues counting on? They were counting, of course, on everything beginning with collapse of the financial system, followed, like an avalanche, by this affecting people and having disastrous consequences. First of all, not only did this not happen but they unexpectedly realized that we can even rapidly grow the infrastructure
26.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
A Recent History of Blockchain and the Impact on Government and Business
If we talk about the possibility of a digital currency, I believe that it makes sense when we talk about the level of several countries. Its value is explicable in this part: while preserving the independence of each country's payment systems, you create another platform where you can settle a part of foreign trade transactions. You use new technologies, where each country trusts each other because they can see each other. We are just considering such a project at the EAC level
26.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
A Recent History of Blockchain and the Impact on Government and Business
If we talk about crypto, this is a super-high-risk tool, there is a lot of hype, there is data that 80–90% transactions are still fraudulent. This means that while in this field there are more questions than answers
26.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
A Recent History of Blockchain and the Impact on Government and Business
No digital, no blockchain, no cloud technologies will not fit in the existing processes, there’s no point in trying. When we talk about the state register or about mortgages, or about transferring the existing process to blockchain. We need to change the process in such a way that it really made sense to apply this technology
26.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
A Recent History of Blockchain and the Impact on Government and Business
The digital profile is one of the key projects in the digital economy. It is much broader than the blockchain, it is a philosophy for the digital economy when we need to have this digital profile and solve the problem of using this data safely. <...> Together with the community we are very active, this project will be discussed at the level of the new minister of digitalization and communication of Akimov
26.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
A Recent History of Blockchain and the Impact on Government and Business
Investments in the blockchain in 2018 increased 2.2 times compared with 2017, but still remain fairly limited. Currently, it is 2.1 billion dollars, with 36% of the investments volume coming from the financial sector
26.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
A Recent History of Blockchain and the Impact on Government and Business
In the world, there is not a single industrial large solution on distributed registers, except bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. I think this partly happened because business never explained what’s the added value in switching to this technology from the existing one
25.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
Challenges and Opportunities in Delivering Digital Infrastructure
The consumer these days determines the success of this or that company, because the consumer wants speed, quality and a set of options for convenience
25.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
Challenges and Opportunities in Delivering Digital Infrastructure
There are three options for organizing infrastructure projects and all of them should be applied. Either the state itself finances infrastructure projects at the state level, like GOSUSLUGI, or there’s a partnership between the state and a private company. A good example is the launch of a remote biometric identification platform. <...> Another option is when the merchants themselves negotiate and create infrastructure solutions on the market
25.05.2018
SPIEF 2018
Challenges and Opportunities in Delivering Digital Infrastructure
When we talk about infrastructural solutions on a national scale that have citizens’ interests in mind, I consider the issue of data security to be of fundamental importance. In general, data should fall into the system only with client’ consent, when the client has a clear understanding who did he give that consent to