Int'l sci & industry forum on comm to open in Nizhny Novgorod.

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, October 5 (Itar-Tass) - The 16th International
scientific and industrial forum "Rossiya Yedinaya" (Integrated Russia)
opens here on Wednesday. This year, it is dedicated to communications as a
factor in national development.
An official at the organizing committee of the forum says it has drawn
over 500 representatives of 12 Russian regions and 12 foreign countries,
who will discuss the problems of fashioning a new communication space
(NCS) and the prospects of Russia as one of the main hubs of NCS
development, as well as risk management matters.
The forum will be attended by Igor Shchyogolev, Russian Minister of
Communications and Mass Media, Yuri Trutnev, Minsiter of Ecology and
Natural Resources, by delegations of the Russian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), the Belgium-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (BLCCI), and the Intel Corporation.
Within the framework of the forum, an exhibition has been also
arranged by Russian and foreign companies in the sections "Science and
Industry of the Regions of Russia", "The Leaders of Russian Industry", and
"Intercontact", including innovation and investment projects for
scientific and industrial enterprises of Russia and foreign countries.
The hosts of the forum ahve arranged a comprehensive exhibition featuring
products displayed by 80 small-business enterprises and companies,
scientific centers and higher learning establishments on the theme of
"Nizhny Novgorod Region -- Center of Communications Strategies of Russia".
The business programme of the forum includes over 30 thematic events,
panel meetings, and Scientific Conference Workshops, presentations of
domestic and foreign enterprises, and roundtable meetings of RUIE and
BLCCI.
The 9th Congress of the Peoples of Russia will be held as well. It
will bring together representatives of the executive and legislative
branches of power and the chiefs of ethnic communities to discuss
solutions to tasks aimed at strengthening internethnic relations in
multi-nationality Russia.
Yet another event will be the second All-Russia media forum.
Journalists participating in master classes and seminars are to discuss
new ways towards interaction with society, and modernization of
information space.
The Integrated Russia forum is traditionally held in the grounds of
the "Nizhny Novgorod Fair" exhibition complex which has been functioning
for 16 years and has developed into a promising floor for the discussion
of important tasks of the country's development, the strengthening and
expansion of interregional and interstate contacts.
The forum is held under the auspices of the RF presidential
plenipotentiary representative in the Volga Federal District, the State
Duma lower house of the Russian parliament, the Ministry of Regional
Development, the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the RUIE, and
the Assembly of the Peoples of Russia.