The Governor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko, greeted the forum participants and noted that industry is the main consumer of innovations, and innovations are impossible without science.

Since 2014, St. Petersburg has been in the triad of the most innovative regions of Russia, while industry, primarily processing, is the basis of the city’s economy, which in the recent “complex” years has yielded a good growth. For the 9 months of 2017, St. Petersburg’s industrial production index rose by 3%, which is significantly higher than the average indicators for Russia.

“Innovations in St. Petersburg are traditionally introduced in shipbuilding and instrument making, but recently, this has been occurring in pharmaceuticals, IT and radio electronics. Through innovation, we can develop and update industry within the National Technological Initiative,” stressed the Governor.

The Chief Federal Inspector for St. Petersburg, Viktor Minenko, greeted the guests of the anniversary Innovation Forum on behalf of the RF President’s Plenipotentiary in the Northwest Federal District, Nikolai Tsukanov.

“The support and development of innovative activity is the basis for Russian development and is the President’s focus. It is important for the regions to also have their say here. Let the forum provide the impetus for innovative development, provide constructive and breakthrough solutions,” he stated.

The Head of the MC Rosnano, Anatoly Chubais, recalled that Rosnano corporation, like the Innovation Forum, is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year.

“St. Petersburg is one of the leading regions for us. The total volume of our and partner investments here is over RUB10 billion. We recently won the tender for development of a promising direction, transportation electrification. As a pilot region, St. Petersburg will receive trolley busses with long stroke. Today, at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipdyard we will commission a passenger catamaran made of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic. It was made by Russian companies from this state-of-the-art material,” he noted.

The CEO of Expoforum International LLC, Sergey Voronkov, stressed: “The Innovation Forum and the “Russian Industrialist” occupy a special place in the list of convention and exhibition events of the NWFD and Russia.” “We have several dozen industrial exhibitions. Thanks to the opening of ExpoForum, St. Petersburg is becoming the capital of innovation and industrial events. We are hosting the International Gas Forum, NEVA and Welding exhibitions and the International Energy Forum. These are world-class projects,” he said.

As for the Innovation Forum and the “Russian Industrialist” forum, the business programme combines 54 events with over 12,000 specialists expected to participate.

In the category “Machine Building and Power Engineering” the contest winners were:
First place – Diakont, Second place – Rakurs-Engineering and Third Place – OMA-Spetsstal.

In the “Medicine, Bio-Technology and Pharmaceuticals” category the contest winners were: First place – Ergo-Production, Second place – Cytomed and Third place – Werteks.

In the “IT and Radio Electronics” category the contest winners were: First place – Raidix, Second place – Scientific Production Association Oktanta and Third place – AstroSoft.

An official tour was made of the exhibition displays, covering the industrial and innovation potential of St. Petersburg and Russia. Over 170 exhibitors are running the booths: developers, manufacturers, universities, scientific associations, including Leninets, Lenpoligrafmash, Politekh, First City Business Incubator, Leningrad Electrical Engineering Institute, Technopark of ITMO University and many others.

The “Russian Industrialist” and the St. Petersburg International Innovation Forum are the largest events in Northwest Russia, which demonstrate innovative developments, industrial equipment, technologies for machine construction, robot engineering and other industries.

The forums combine a vast business programme: exhibitions, conferences and roundtable discussions about the blockchain technologies, labour market, export system, investment project evaluation, including the plenary sessions “Innovative Ecosystems and Technological Priorities.”

There are delegates working at the site from 34 Russian regions and 22 countries: Germany, France, Finland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Korea and others.

The forums run in pavilion H of ExpoForum from 20 through 22 September.