Participants discussed issues connected with the adoption of the Law on Exhibition, Trade Fair and Congress Activities Discussed in Ministry of Industry and Trade, gave their assessment of development of the branch in the country, and discussed a list of key congress and exhibition events taking place in Russia and abroad in 2019.

Alexei Kalachev, Director of Convention Bureau Russia Association, brought to attention that previously proposed concepts of the Federal Law on Exhibition, Trade Fair and Congress Activities didn’t pay enough attention to congress activities, and suggested that this should be amended in the final version of the bill. “This market segment is not considered independent of federal law - it’s just associated with exhibition activities, which is not fully correct. We also consider it important to establish legal criteria to determine the quality of services and qualification of participants of competitive tenders for holding events, so that it can increase attraction for the most professional companies when making purchases. We see measures aimed at simplifying the visa receiving process for foreign participants of business events taking place in Russia as one more initiative that will enable increased export of event services,” Alexei Kalachev noted.

Sergey Voronkov, Presidium Member of Russian Union of Exhibitions and Trades, Director General of EXPOFORUM International LLC, emphasized a need to legitimize congress and exhibition activities and add them in the official OKVED (Russian National Classifier of Types of Economic Activity). Sergey Voronkov also suggested to write into law the roles of all bodies taking part in managing this branch most actively: federal and regional authorities administering these issues, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Trades, and sector associations that play key roles as co-organizers of the biggest events all over the world, the Russian Convention Bureau and convention bureaus of constituent territories of the Russian Federation.

As Dmitry Mikhailov, Deputy Director for Organizational Development of the Roscongress Foundation, noted, it is important to create relevant infrastructure in many Russian regions, especially remote ones, to develop congress and exhibition activities efficiently. “The congress capabilities of Moscow and St. Petersburg noticeably differ from those of other regions. State support and the improvement of public private partnership tools are needed to develop infrastructure for congress and exhibitions, if we also consider attracting private funds, since return on investments in such infrastructure is more complicated compared with items of commercial or residential real estate. This would be facilitated with adoption of the law that does not only define congress and exhibition activities, but provides relevant measures for state support as well,” Dmitry Mikhailov highlighted.

In conclusion, Georgy Kalmanov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, who was holding the session of the Interdepartmental Commission, asked that work to amend the project of the Federal Law on Exhibition, Trade Fair and Congress Activities be arranged in the shortest possible time by a relevant expert group.