Aleksei Eresko, Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing of RF, Denis Kravchenko, the deputy of the State Duma, Sergey Kropachev, Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg, Evgeny Razumishkin, Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg, Sergey Voronkov, General Director of ExpoForum International, and Dmitry Nikitin, General Director of RESTEC Exhibition Association, officially started the International Exhibition «Housing and Communal Services of Russia» as part of the opening ceremony of industry events, that are held simultaneously at the venue of ExpoForum, that is the XII Russian International Energy Forum and the International Exhibition-Convention «Rustproofing».

Sergey Voronkov stated at the opening ceremony that the principal task of the organizer is to make the Exhibition a showcase of new achievements.

The convention program of the «Housing and Communal Services of Russia – 2024» was divided into two thematic areas: management of housing stock and forming of comfortable urban environment. The experts were discussing the matters of housing and utilities sector modernization, its basic problems and principal development areas, reliability of heat supply systems, specifics of capital repairs, as well as transformation of regulation of the multi-family houses management market.

One of the key events was the round-table discussion «Modernizing the Housing and Communal Infrastructure in Cities. Mechanisms. Technologies. Opportunities» with the Union of the Russian Cities and the Association of Utility Companies «Unified Housing and Utilities Council» acting as the event co-organizers.

While speaking at the event, Pavel Kachkaev, the First Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing, pointed out that the wear and tear of the housing stock and utilities are currently one of the main challenges of the complex. «The RF utility infrastructure, mainly heat and power supply, is characterized by heavy wear», he stated. Pavel Kachkaev provided the data of the RF Ministry of Construction, according to which 42% of networks, that is almost 400 thousand km, need to be replaced.

The wear and tear of the country’s utility infrastructure was also focused on at the round-table discussion «Improving Reliability and Safety of Heat Supply Systems» arranged by the SONO «Russian Gas Society». Low control level, poor quality of heat supplying schemes, and overloaded networks due to the new housing construction were named among the causes of accidents. Public authorities are taking measures to improve the situation, noted Aleksei Eresko, the Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing. For example, there is an ongoing monitoring of utility-related accidents which enables to obtain the appropriate and accurate information on the system condition and the reasons of emergencies.

There are also other issues that can be solved in a rather efficient way. According to Aleksei Eresko, at present, certificates of the utility facilities readiness are not required to be executed and no sanctions are provided for the absence thereof. Drawing up of heating schemes should be transferred from the municipal to the regional level, as municipals often just lack the required competencies, the deputy minister thinks.

The issues of the industry payment discipline were also spoken about at the session «Smart Housing and Communal Services: Cases of Implementing Digital Solutions for Automated Operation of Housing and Communal Services», which has also become one of the key events of the Exhibition.

According to the data provided by Anton Lomakin, the Head of the Utility Payments product of Tinkoff Bank JSC, from July 2022 to July 2023 the scope of debt for the utility services increased by 8.7% having amounted to 833.5 billion rubles. An average collectability of payments around the country amounted to 94–96%. As of the beginning of the Q4 2023, 7.9 people were listed as having debts in Russia. As it was evident from the survey, the indebtedness was mainly caused by customer forgetfulness, Anton Lomakin specified. It account for 47% of respondents. The next possible answers in terms of popularity are unstable earnings (25%) and inconvenience about monthly payment for utility services (13%). To solve the debt issue in respect of the utility services the specialists of Tinkoff Bank JSC have referred to the foreign experience where collectability of payments amounts to 98–99%. It was decided to focus on the notices and bills in the mobile application, which has already produced the first results.

The discussions within the Exhibition «Housing and Communal Services of Russia» involved not only the trends and issues of federal nature, but also the problems essential for specific regions. Thus, the issues of the urban improvement were focused on at the round-table discussion «Creating Comfortable Urban Environment of Saint Petersburg. Current Results, Prospects Till 2030» organized in cooperation with the Saint Petersburg Improvement Committee.

The round-table participants shared their experience of working in the field of the city improvement. For example, the Competence Center for Formation of Comfortable Urban Environment is working on establishing major sports venues, namely, the skate park under the Betancourt bridge.

As regards the exhibition part of the event, great interest of the visitors was aroused by the novelty products exhibited by the manufacturing companies. For instance, Darel has demonstrated samples of the module coatings under the ERFOLG brand with a vast scope of application in city improvement, as well as grass pavers for eco parking, fire lanes. The coatings for children’s and sport playgrounds, recreation areas are manufactured under the ERFOLG brand.

The novelty items made by the Belorussian company Invet included street flowerpots for planting of greenery, boxes for the sand and salt mixture. The Petersburg company Mitrax showed a mini loader «Mitrax MP 749» at the Exhibition which may be used in the improvement and landscape gardening. Currently, one may see 120 such universal machines on the street of Saint Petersburg, and 300 more loaders of the company operate in the regions.

Ural Plant of Deicing Materials presented the deicing materials (DIM), street shampoos and dust suppression agents of own production.

Small Mash Plant demonstrated to the Exhibition visitors the road machinery based on a dump truck.

Broadway Production Company presented such brand-new products as a sweeping and cleaning trailer «Broadway», Raywin diesel engine of 3М16 model, as well as the spare parts and components for municipal vehicles.

The representatives of D-ICE demonstrating their developments at the Exhibition, told that the company fleet consists of 12 machines based on KAMAZ with a German installation. These machines are used for garbage removal.

Yekaterinburg company CRATE came to Saint Petersburg with its own line of domestic controllers for the accounting, automation and control systems. In particular, they may be used in pumping station control, ventilation, heating.

Tatneft-Presscomposite showed composite conduits for hot water supply, manholes, benches and other small architectural forms on the basis of glass fiber, unsaturated resins and mineral fillers.

The Exhibition also featured new developments in digital technologies for the Housing and Communal Sector. For example, ZhKKh Integrator talked about the services of information and technological support of the housing and utilities market participants.

On the days when the industrial projects were held, the Business Networking Centre was operating on the ExpoForum venue, during which more than 1,700 meetings between the suppliers and the customers took place. As part the International Exhibition «Housing and Communal Services of Russia», individual meetings were held by representatives of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of Vladimir region, Saint Petersburg Fund for Capital Repairs, Sozvezdie Management Company, Samolet Management Company, SUE TEK SPb, KVS-Service GC, Association of Management Companies Association and of other companies and institutions.

The Russian International Energy Forum, the International Exhibition-Convention «Rustproofing» were held at the ExpoForum simultaneously with the Exhibition «Housing and Communal Services of Russia». Due to parallel holding of three large-scale events, the experts from different economy areas were able to meet at the same platform for the maximum effective exchange of experience on the issues of conducting business in the essential industry branches of Russia. 

The ХХ International Exhibition «Housing and Communal Services of Russia» took place with the support of the Ministry of Construction and Housing of the Russian Federation and the Government of Saint Petersburg.

The project partners are Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company), Small Mash Plant, Tinkoff Bank.

The strategic media partner is ZhKKh Mix magazine.

The key co-organizers of the convention program are the MKD Modernization Union, Konsjerzh Publishing House, Novoye Kachestvo (New Quality) Association of Management Companies, R1 Association, Association of payment Agents, Association for Regional Operators of Multi-Family Houses Capital Repairs (AROKR), Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company).

The event organizer is ExpoForum International.