The president addressed a message to the participants, organizers and guests at the 25th edition of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which will take place in from June 15th to 18th.

He stressed that the accelerated development of the country’s infrastructure and technological base, the qualitative increase in the level of training of specialists and the creation of an independent and efficient financial system are among the objectives for the period.

“The Russian economy will be based more and more on private initiative and, of course, will keep the course towards openness and broad international cooperation,” he said.

He also expressed his interest on having the Forum continue to contribute significantly to the solution of many priority tasks of humanity and that mutual trust, richness of content and the spirit of fruitful dialogue and partnership always remain as its distinctive features.

The Russian head of state stressed the importance of stimulating trade and investment, promoting the joint development of technologies, strengthening financial and stock markets, as well as increasing the amounts of settlements in national currencies.

“It is important to introduce and develop a truly beneficial integration model, as is already done in the Eurasian Economic Union,” he said.

Putin recalled that the 25th anniversary meeting of the forum is taking place in a difficult period for the entire international community. In his view, years of Western economic policy mistakes and illegitimate sanctions have led to a wave of global inflation, the breakdown of usual production and supply chains, a sharp rise in poverty, and food shortages.

pgh/llp/mem/mml