The Russian Investment Forum launched its business programme on 14 February with Young Enterprise Day. The closing discussion was the roundtable ‘The Role of Young People in Shaping the Economy of the Future’. The discussion was moderated by Yekaterina Dragunova, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs.

Speakers discussed the role of economically active youth in the era of the fourth industrial revolution and analysed what tools are being used today to attract the younger generation to business.

The discussion opened with Federal Agency for Youth Affairs Head Alexander Bugaev reading out a greeting from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to the participants of the first day of the Forum. “Talented, enterprising, and ambitious young people who can implement bold ideas and innovative projects that truly work have gathered here in Sochi today. Each of you has creative courage and the ability to think outside the box and break stereotypes. You are striving to create something new and original and are ready to demonstrate your achievements in various fields. I am confident that the meeting in Sochi will be a milestone for you and help you become successful. After all, your life is based on your choice and your actions. I wish you an intensive and interesting dialogue,” Mr. Bugaev quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Mr. Bugaev said the role played by the younger generation is intensifying today as the role and place of humans in the economic chain is changing and the new economic order poses a wide array of new challenges. After all, young people are the most receptive to changes and new technologies, are more flexible and progressive, and are not afraid to take risks, make mistakes, and evolve. He said that Russia has enough programmes to support youth entrepreneurship, in particular the ‘You Are an Entrepreneur’ programme, as well as grant competitions that are held within the open platform ‘Russia Is a Land of Opportunities’. “Formal and informal youth associations at universities are an environment from which the most progressive and enterprising young people grow both in entrepreneurship and in the social sector. And it is also our job to support such associations,” Mr. Bugaev said.

Russian Ministry of Economic Development representative Maksim Parshin spoke about the development of youth entrepreneurship in the country as well as small and medium-sized businesses with a presentation of statistics: “There are more than 6 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in Russia today of which 2.8 million are legal entities and the rest are individual entrepreneurs. Small business currently accounts for a fifth of the country’s GDP, and SMEs employ 19 million people. We are setting ambitious goals, such as increasing the volume of small business in the economy to 40%, and employment in small business to 7 million people.” In addition to these plans, Mr. Parshin, the Director of the Department for Small and Medium-sized Business and Competition at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, presented the results of work carried out by the Government and agencies to support youth entrepreneurship and SMEs. “In particular, the Government has replaced fines with warnings, made changes to procurements for small and medium-sized businesses, and abolished personnel records management for microbusinesses. Some 400 centres of innovative youth creativity have been set up in 40 regions of the country to strengthen the position of youth entrepreneurship. And 23,000 new companies have been formed as part of the ‘You Are an Entrepreneur’ programme,” he said. Nevertheless, Mr. Parshin said there are very few people in Russia today who want to start their own business, but it is encouraging that the overwhelming majority of them – 63% – are young people under the age of 30.

Alexander Kalinin, President of the All-Russian Non-Governmental Organization of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Opora Russia, laid out the main barriers to growth in SMEs. In his speech, he devoted special attention to export support: “If we want to increase the number of SMEs, we need to remove obstacles from exports.” Mr. Kalinin said the government should guarantee sales markets for entrepreneurs as well as reduce the administrative burden. He also mentioned his organization’s role in supporting SMEs: “We have managed to deploy a network of bureaus to protect the rights of entrepreneurs and compel state companies to buy from small businesses in state tenders, which already amount to RUB 3 trillion a year.” Mr. Kalinin noted that there has been a dramatic increase in interest among young people in the technological and production business recently and the number of successful medium-sized companies has increased, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Sberbank Vice-President – Head of GR Department Andrey Sharov spoke about the new technology solutions that Sberbank offers for the development of SMEs. He listed key trends that will dictate the rules in the new digital economy, including the Internet of Things, robots, artificial intelligence, and digital areas. “Today, many companies have set an ambitious task of not having a single product that doesn’t use artificial intelligence,” Mr. Sharov said. “Continuing education is also one of the main trends of the future. According to statistics, in the future a person will replace about eight professions with his work activity,” he said, adding that not nobody knew about the concept of a “digital employee” until recently, but today it is an integral part of our reality.

Vice President and Head of the Executive Committee of Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia) Elena Bocherova painted a portrait of the young entrepreneur in 2030.

The discussion ended with a speech by Muslim Muslimov, an entrepreneur and the founder of the Clinic No. 1 network of medical centres.