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AmCham held its 9th Annual Investment Conference on Wednesday, April 23, 2008, at the Marriott Aurora Hotel. The event was attended by over 200 representatives of AmCham member companies.
The opening plenary session featured William J. Burns, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation; Stanislav Voskresensky, RF Deputy Minister of, Economic Development & Trade, Victor Vekselberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Renova Group of Companies; Executive Director, Gas Business Development, TNK-BP, Professor Evgeny Yasin, Scientific Director, Higher School of Economics, Andrew Somers, President, American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, and Blair Ruble, Director of the Kennan Institute in Washington, DC.
The plenary session was followed by two parallel break-out sessions on the themes Innovation as a driver of diversification and sustainable growth and Infrastructure as a key element in sustaining economic growth. Innovation speakers included Katya Defossez Puzyrnikova of McKinsey & Company, Inc. (session moderator), Evgeny Luzov of Alcoa, Dmitry Konash of Intel, Jonathan Hines of Dewey & LeBoeuf, Oleg Syutin of Microsoft, and Scott Baker of Topcon Positioning Systems CIS LLC. The Infrastructure session featured Alex de Valukhoff of Lafarge (session moderator), Darrell Stanaford of CB Richard Ellis, Natasha Khanjenkova of EBRD, Evgeny Trusov of Ernst & Young, Ermolai Solzhenitsyn of McKinsey & Company, Inc., and Simon Carbonell of URS (Washington Group International).
Each spring since 2000, the American Chamber of Commerce has held its Annual Investment Conference, which examines recent trends and their likely impact on the current business environment in Russia. The event brings together over 250 top business executives, leading policymakers and media representatives for a half-day discussion on topical issues influencing the business climate. Each conference attendee receives a copy of “The Economy and Investment Climate in Russia,” a special report prepared by AmCham, the Expert Institute of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and Ernst & Young. The conference provides a forum for prominent Russian and international business leaders and economic experts to present their positions on such issues as:
- Will Russia maintain its high pace of economic development?
- What are the prospects for economic cooperation between Russia and the U.S., and Russia and EU?
- How successful will foreign business continue to be in Russia?
- Why is the diversification of the economy still a difficult target to achieve both in Russia and elsewhere?
- Are Russia’s human resources sufficient enough to implement ambitious economic development and company business growth plans?
- What is holding back growth in the commercialization of scientific research?
- How can government stimulate private sector investment and leadership in innovation?
- Which financing challenges need to be met to support infrastructure project needs?
- How is it best to strike a balance between increasing inflation and the need for infrastructure spending?
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Presentations made during the 2008 Investment Conference may be 
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