The annual meeting is one of the joint activities of the AEB and the Government of the Leningrad Region under the Agreement of Cooperation signed during the International Economic Forum in June 2017.

This year the main topic of the event was "COOPERATION IN ESG AS A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS". 

The event was opened by Tadzio Schilling, AEB CEO and Dmitry Yalov, Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Region Government, Chairman of the Committee for Economic Development and Investment Activity of the Leningrad Region. 

In the first part of the event, Anton Rassadin, the Chair of the AEB North-Western Regional Committee, presented the results of the survey, which has been implemented on an annual basis by the AEB North-Western Regional Committee among the European resident companies in the Leningrad Region and aims at revealing the overall business mood of the European investors in the region. AEB has enjoyed a very fruitful cooperation with the Leningrad region for many year, which was clearly demonstrated with the latest survey: 100 percent assess the region’s investment climate as positive (46 percent believe it is close to ideal); 88 percent are planning to continue investing in the region. 

Further, the representatives of the investment team of the Government of the Leningrad Region – Egor Mischeryakov, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Economic Development and Investment Activity of the Leningrad Region, and Anastasia Mikhalchenko (Director of the Agency for Economic Development of the Leningrad Region) presented "New parameters of cooperation with investors" on the regional level (low carbon development plans, green corridor for investors, etc.).

 

In the second part, distinguished experts representing the regional companies (Philip Morris International, Rockwool, HeidelbergCement, Nokian Tyres, Project 111, and the Saint Petersburg cluster of clean technologies for the urban environment) were invited for live discussion on the role of the ESG projects in sustainable development of regions and cooperation with local authorities and the business community for successful implementations of those projects.

We would like to thank Kommersant, Philip Morris International and HeidelbergCement for supporting the event.