Moscow – Geneva: urban management – modern challenges and current solutions

A conference on city management and international cooperation took place in the Swiss capital.

At the “Moscow – Geneva. Urban Management: modern challenges and current solutions” conference, organized by the Moscow Department for External Economic and International Relations, participants discussed relevant issues regarding urban management and prospects for cooperation between the two capitals.

The event was attended by Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations Sergey Cheremin, President of United Chamber of Commerce for Switzerland, Russia and CIS countries Guy Mettan, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov, Economic Development Officer of the Republic and Canton of Geneva Michael Kleiner, Head Physician at the Research Institute of Emergency Medical Care named after N.V. Sklifosovsky Alexey Tokarev, Cantonal Architect for the Canton of Geneva Francesco Della Casa, and Head of the RIS & Partners architectural bureau Antoine Ris.

Sergey Cheremin noted that cooperation between Moscow and Switzerland is developing steadily, there are about 200 large Swiss companies operating in the Russian capital, the volume of Swiss investments in the Russian economy is about 10 billion dollars, and there has been an annual trade turnover increase of 18-20%.

Touching on the main topic of the conference, the minister said that the digital economy and the development of smart city technologies is one of the most relevant, highly-prioritized urban development tasks for the Moscow government.

Moscow’s accomplishments in this sphere have been recognized by leading global research companies and agencies. For example, the Russian capital moved up from 124th to 31st place in the Doing Business rating and placed first on the UN e-government index, bypassing 40 capitals all over the world. Moscow also placed 1st and 6th among Eastern European cities out of 25 cities of the future, according to fDi Magazine. The Russian capital received a special prize in the “Provision of public services in electronic form” category from the World e-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments WeGO.

Sergey Cheremin spoke in detail about the investment projects planned and implemented in Moscow, the development of transport infrastructure, and the construction of roads and subways. He emphasized that the Moscow Government pays great attention to the development of public-private partnerships: for every ruble spent by the city, Moscow attracts 3-4 rubles from investors. The city is actively investing budget funds in the modernization of education and healthcare, and introducing modern business process management systems.

The Head of the Department of External Economic and International Relations expressed confidence that the Russian capital will soon become an example Smart City, meeting all criteria in this regard.

Alexey Tokarev, Head Physician at the Research Institute of Emergency Medical Care named after N.V. Sklifosovsky, talked in detail about healthcare developments in Moscow to conference guests and participants.

During their speeches, Cantonal Architect for the Canton of Geneva Francesco Della Casa and Head of the RIS & Partners architectural bureau Antoine Ris talked about Switzerland’s experience with implementing modern architectural solutions in creating smart city development concepts.