OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2013. Leonid Ivanovski, Management Consulting Practice Director of Balt-Audit-Expert (the Energy Consulting Group) introduced a concept of St. Petersburg compartmentalization into geographical economic zones within the framework of public discussions on the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the City up to the year 2030.

Public discussions of the first edition of the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for St. Petersburg up to the year 2030 were held on September 21 in LEONTYEVSKI CENTER, the International Economic and Social Research Center – the key designer of the Strategy.   These discussions have been arranged by CONTEXT, the Interdisciplinary and Cross-Professional Cooperation Fund, under auspices of   the Committee for Economic Policy & Strategic Planning of St. Petersburg.  

Leonid Ivanovski, a Member of the Economic Council, Management Consulting Practice Director of BALT-AUDIT-EXPERT, presented his report Geographical Economic Zones within the framework of the facilitated workshop Zoning & Urban Management. In his report Leonid Ivanovski provided a scenario of the socio-economic development for St. Petersburg in a part of   the regional development. 

According to the scenario, the city is expected to be divided into six geographical economic zones and three specific economic zones. There are some criteria for such compartmentalization. Each geographical economic zone has enough comfortable housing, modern work positions, highly-developed socio-cultural and transport infrastructure, leisure areas, and business resources. "In our sense, the zones are, first of all, the areas convenient for living and attractive, of course, for doing business", Leonid Ivanovski remarked.

Among different benefits from the implementation of new approaches to the regional development of St. Petersburg, the Expert of Energy Consulting highlighted such ones as the rising in labor productivity, in incomes of inhabitants, in trade network sales, and in tax proceeds, the development of industrial chains and business relations, the growth of attractiveness of outlying districts for the placement of industrial and business zones etc. 

The Concept has sparked a big interest of the expert community, inhabitants of St. Petersburg and mass media representatives. 

BALT-AUDIT-EXPERT of the Energy Consulting Group was engaged by LEONTYEVSKI CENTER in the drafting a social & economic development strategy for St. Petersburg up to the year 2030 and in the development of cutting-edge approaches to the area development of the City.