At a bilateral meeting held in Moscow on December 18, Renaud Seligmann, World Bank’s Country Director for Russia, and Svetlana Chupsheva, the head of the ASI, agreed to relaunch the investment climate agenda and expand the areas of cooperation in 2020. This is reported on the official website of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

Action plans for the selected areas are to be approved by the sides by late January.

Thus, Svetlana Chupsheva proposed the World Bank to become an international partner in the implementation of the Smarteka initiative. General Director of the ASI reported that the platform for sharing effective practices, including around 50 regional solutions, was being piloted.

"We have already started to discuss interoperation in regard to the Smarteka platform. We expect that it will be efficient not only for the regions, but also for companies, funds, non-commercial organizations, for business persons and ordinary people. We are eager for it to be absolutely open for interaction with other countries so that it is not merely an archive but rather a tool for exchange, assessment, ranking, and search for mentors, which makes it possible to form a pool of international experts. Here, we would like to see the World Bank in the ranks of our global partners. You have the largest knowledge base and definitely something to share, I believe. Lastly, it is certainly interesting that you see potential from the perspective of updating your international base", - Svetlana Chupsheva said.

The head of the ASI specified the priority areas of cooperation: technological development, entrepreneurship support, urban development, social sphere, personnel training, and expertise development in regional teams. She pointed out four criteria used by the ASI to assess its initiatives and leaders projects.

"First, any project being implemented at the Agency must be based on best practices. Everything we support and implement must have upscale potential. Second is digitalization. This means the ability to be structured from the perspective of analyzing the use of big data, digital solutions, and technologies. Third is globality. We consider projects from the perspective of competition in the global market, from the perspective of updating the international knowledge base and our possibility to become a leader. Fourth is the aspect of forming and expanding the network. It is very important for us to build up network interaction with a partner network and involve our target communities in projects", - Svetlana Chupsheva noted.

"These criteria and our priorities fit together very well. We have accumulated a database of similar solutions and practices," World Bank’s Country Director stated.

Renaud Seligmann proposed to update Smarteka with the solutions related to social protection issues as the first step, as well as create an international profile and ensure the correct positioning of the platform for other countries as the second step.

The World Bank is to organize systemic work with Russian regions. Previously, it used to be piecemeal (the World Bank addressed social protection issues in Tatarstan and energy efficiency issues in Yugra).

"We would like to draw up a comprehensive menu for the regions that would reflect the World Bank's main competencies grouped into specific units. The first unit is human capital (services for education, social protection, healthcare). The second unit is growth and economic development, including the issues of combating disparity. The third unit is the living standard, as well as urban and rural development. The fourth unit includes cross-cutting issues — everything related to digital economy and state institutions," Renaud Seligmann explained.