OREANDA-NEWS. June 7, 2011. The SPIEF Organizing Committe decided during a meeting May 28, 2011 in St. Petersburg to update the Forum business programme.  The revised version available in the Programme section of the Forum website identifies the confirmed speakers and lays out a new time schedule for holding sessions and discussions panels.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is the main annual economic summit of Russia and the CIS states – the “Russian Davos”. The Forum has been held in St. Petersburg evey June since 1997 and is conducted in the form of plenary sessions, roundtables, exhibitions, presentations of investment projects, and business meetings and negotiations in which presidents, the heads of governments and parliaments of different countries, and the heads and representatives of international organizations, as well as businessmen, experts, scholars and public figures participate. In 2005, some 3 000 people from 64 countries participated in the Forum. Until 2006 the Forum was conducted by the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of CIS Member States and the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. Since then, following a Presidential decree, the Forum has been organized by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. The working languages of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum are Russian and English.