Georgy Potapov, Managing Director “Strategy and Policy”, and Alan Thompson, Director of the Department for International Financial Integration, took part in a number of events, panel discussions and multilateral meetings at the 21^st SPIEF from 31^st – 3^rd of June 2017.

Georgy Potapov shared IIB’s experience and positive case studies in a session titled “Strengthening International Ties for SME’s between Russia and Latin America and countries of the Caribbean” that was organized by UNIDO (the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) together with Roscongress and the Comité Nacional para la Cooperación Economica con los Países Latinoamericanos (CN CEPLA). Furthermore, the IIB was one of the key sponsors of this occasion.

In the course of the discussion that brought together international and Russian experts on Latin America, diplomats and entrepreneurs, G. Potapov represented the possibilities of the IIB as a Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) to support Russian –Latin American economic ties and trade, citing a number of successful financing projects with Cuba, and other Latin-American countries in which the IIB has taken part. The participants of the forum payed particular attention to the IIB’s plans to undertake projects together with CAF – the Latin American Development Bank, and UNIDO and to the IIB’s Trade Finance Support Programme (TFSP), which represents a number of documentary and financial products available for entities in countries, which are not sovereign members of the Bank.

Alan Thompson took part in discussion in another international conference titled “From Lisbon to Vladivostok”. The session as its name suggests was about the creation of a united economic “space” on the worlds’ largest continent. By addressing the needs of the financial, economic and trade integration of this space and the sovereigns and supra-national organisations represented – European Union and The Eurasian Economic Union – the IIB’s representative highlighted the role the MDB’s have:

“Institutions such as IIB and EDB are integrators of the combined economic area of the sovereign states which they represent, forecasting, stimulating and financing the next critical stage of development in each economy.”

The Director of the Department for International Financial Integration at the IIB also was invited to moderate a panel session as part of the SPIEF programme on the 1^st of June titled: “The development of the legal audio and video content market”. The session was designed to address the main issues facing copyright and IP holders when providing their content for online use. Naturally, the discussion focused on how to combat piracy, and how this factor continues to affect the further development of this market both internationally and at the national level in Russia.

During SPIEF, the IIB delegation also had a number of constructive meetings with partners of the Bank, including representatives of the Russian Export Centre, the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Association of European Businesses, the EDB, and a number of other banking and financial institutions. The IIB also too advantage of the occasion to hold separate discussions with the Diplomatic representatives of the countries of Latin America with a view to further extending the business interests of these countries both within Russia and in other member countries of the IIB. The mass media broadcast interviews and commentary about the achievements of the IIB delegation during the forum.