Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko had a meeting with World Economic Forum President Borge Brende. Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov also attended the meeting.
Dialogue participants discussed the possibility of establishing a Fourth Industrial Revolution centre in Russia; there were plans to open it at a Sberbank facility last year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to put off the signing of the agreement with the World Economic Forum, the project’s initiator.
The Russian centre will be expected to team up with other similar places in over ten countries and chart approaches towards legal regulation and ethics in innovative economic sectors and to share advanced technological solutions. The centre will attract the best international experts in implementing various projects and will also create favourable conditions for international experience exchange. The centre will have its own office and workers.
“We are now drafting a memorandum on cooperation. Our next meeting, scheduled for this coming spring, will deal with the rapid victories plan for the next three years, so that we would see a clear horizon of joint actions and would be able to synchronise our efforts. Russia is ready to share its inventions and is determined to launch beneficial cooperation with global leaders in such fields as AI, robotics, remote-controlled transport systems and other topical venues,” Dmitry Chernyshenko said.
He suggested implementing the project at Russia’s independent non-profit organisation Digital Economy.
Meeting participants also discussed the climate agenda. Maxim Reshetnikov said Russia had developed its own method for calculating the absorbing capacity of forests and recording hydrocarbon volumes.
“We have repeatedly stated that the current method, approved by the international community, does not take into account several important factors that are endemic to Russia,” he added. According to the Minister, this method does not heed reserve forests and those of farmlands. “Unlike other countries, Russia has a tremendous area, and forests cover 40 percent of the farmlands. We will therefore be happy if the World Economic Forum, the world community’s respected format for communications between countries, will be able to become a venue where we will cooperate with foreign colleagues on recording carbon units and will sum up the opinions of all parties to this process, including national specifics,” Maxim Reshetnikov said.
There are similar centres in the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Norway and other countries. Their projects include the United Kingdom’s Unlocking Public Sector AI that consists of guidelines for purchasing AI solutions by state agencies. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrein, Chile and the United States are already implementing these pilot projects. Russia can also take part in a pilot project and use available guidelines allowing state agencies to purchase AI solutions.
