Eurasian Regional Development Forum

The forum was organised by the Department of Economics and Production Process Modelling, and attracted over 100 academics, businessmen and government officials from across Russia. But there was interest from abroad as well, with delegates arriving from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, and even Ecuador and Madagascar. The attraction is due to the obvious problems of integration and development in the world's largest country. Indeed, the forum was focussed on the Russian Federation's Regional Development Strategy.
The forum dealt with various aspects of regional development, including priorities for social and economic development in Eurasia, new models for regional economic organisation, developing international finance and credit, strategies for coping with changing technology, and regional development based on innovation potential.

The forum was successful in its aim to bring disparate interested groups together, and will provide a collection of articles and studies that will inform business and government, and serve as a wealth of research material for students and teachers interested in regional development. In fact, a large part of the fundamental research was carried out in this University, at the Regional Economics Research Laboratory, run by the Institute of Economics and Management.