On December 5, 2023, the conference of the AEB North-Western Regional Committee “Results of the year 2023 – New Challenges or New Opportunities?” was held, which was attended by representatives of the authorities of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, as well as member companies of the AEB NWRC.

The panel session was moderated by the AEB CEO Tadzio Schilling, who invited the participants of the session - Dmitry Panov, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Coordinator of “Business Russia” for the North-Western Federal District, Egor Mishcheryakov, First Deputy Chairman of the Economic Development Committee and investment activities of the Leningrad region, and Elena Ruleva, Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in the Leningrad Region, to make a retrospective of the business climate in the periods: before the pandemic, the pandemic period and at the current moment.

Despite all the difficulties, all participants of the discussion noted the importance of keeping communication channels open and friendly, and the willingness of government structures to actively get involved even in specific business issues.

The business session, which was moderated by the Chairman of the AEB North-Western Regional Committee, Elena Kiyanova, included issues of financial risks for foreign companies working with sanctioned banks. The agenda was presented by Rosbank experts, Yuri Dranovsky and Evgeniy Koshelev, issues of digitalization and cases from the transition of foreign software to domestic ones were covered by the Director for Technological Innovation of WONE IT Ilya Karyakin, as well as the Director of the global business unit for trade promotion at Ahlers Johan Elzes presented a practical case.

It should be noted that the topics evoked a lively response among companies, since the problems of foreign businesses operating in Russia are largely similar.

The event continued with informal communication between the event participants, during which they were able to communicate with each other and share their news, problems and experiences.