The St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON) has been collaborating with the Roscongress Foundation for over three years now and continues to expand the collaboration. Traditionally, the University sends a group of experts to work at the Forum who then provide opinions about the results of the discussions held as part of the Forum’s business program. Following SPIEF 2019, the St. Petersburg State University of Economics with support from the Roscongress Foundation has published a special issue of the Izvestiâ Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo èkonomičeskogo universiteta (Journal of the St. Petersburg State University of Economics). The special issue of the journal contains a collection of scholarly articles where the experts summarize and conceptualize the results of the Forum.

The articles are grouped into the following blocks:

• Economic theory and philosophy;

• Globalization and global economic processes;

• Financial sector of the economy;

• State regulation of the economy;

• Corporate, regional, and sectoral economics;

• Methodology and instruments of governance;

• Sociological aspects of governance and economics.

The SPIEF 2019 key topic was ‘Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda’. Discussion participants agreed that digitalization and technological transformation are the foundation of the sustainable development, while business plays a key role in achieving these goals. Topics related to searching for new drivers to stimulate the growth of the Russian economy were widely discussed at the Forum. The UNECON experts note that despite Russia’s low positions in a number of rankings, Western investors show a growing interest in Russian eurobonds. Increasingly often now, the idea that implementing investment projects in Russia is difficult and entails high risks is perceived by foreign investors as a myth.

The experts report that the topic of the development of the global energy industry provoked intense debate. The participants voiced their confidence that fossil fuels would remain an essential energy source for several decades. Diversification should largely be aimed at scaling up gas production because gas is considered the cleanest type of fuel.

The UNECON experts believe that the younger generation of Russians is taking an active part in formulating the principles of a sustainable development of global economy. The outlook of young entrepreneurs can become an essential component of the sustainable development agenda, particularly as regards the economic conditions (investment and economic climate of the country) that they consider comfortable for developing their own startups in Russia — meaning not only isolated success stories (which can be used as benchmarks, like the Promobot company) but also prospective systemically important manufacturing enterprises.