OREANDA-NEWS. More than 1,900 financial market professionals gathered for Moscow Exchange"s seventh annual Moscow Exchange Forum yesterday, the flagship event of the Russian financial market.

A standing-room-only crowd attended the morning plenary session moderated by Moscow Exchange Board Chairman Alexey Kudrin that focused on growth prospects for the Russian economy. Panellists included Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak and businessman Pyotr Aven. Participants grappled with how to stimulate growth while not encouraging inflation or taking on unsustainable debt.

A dynamic panel with senior executives from a number of Russian corporates focused on "International Investors and Corporate Russia: Can a Match Be Made?". Participants discussed prospects for privatization, improvements in productivity at Russian corporates, moves to strengthen corporate governance and Moscow Exchange's attractiveness as a listing platform. In parallel, a second panel moderated by MOEX CEO Alexander Afanasiev held a wide-ranging discussion on the role of regulation to foster greater investment within and into Russia.

In addition to the public events, Moscow Exchange and forum partner Credit Suisse arranged a robust schedule of one-on-one meetings between 41 MOEX-listed Russian corporates over the course of today and tomorrow. 150 investment professionals from 70 funds from more than 20 countries are scheduled to participate in the meetings.

Other panel sessions focused on new products and services offered by Moscow Exchange, market connectivity and technological access, and developments at the central securities depository.

Over the last year MOEX has convened Moscow Exchange Forums in three additional financial capitals around the world. The Forum came to New York in September, Shanghai in November and in London in December.

Moscow Exchange Forum 2016 was held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in central Moscow.