The IV International Black Sea Forum was organized and held under an initiative of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on 24-25 of October 2013, in historical Livadia Palace in Yalta.

 

Traditionally the Forum is being a high-level platform that helps to solve one of the most important issues of Crimea, including strategic interests of Ukraine in the Black Sea region.

 

The Forum was attended by Nikolay Azarov, the Prime-Minister of Ukraine, Andrey Ermolaev, Director of National Institute of Strategic Research under the President of Ukraine, Mustafa Sever, Deputy Minister of Economic of Turkish Republic, Jeffrey Donaldson, Member of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain, representatives of governors and business circles, experts from Black Sea region.

 

 

The last year’s Forum brought together over 200 state officials, experts and business leaders from 13 countries including the Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Great Britain, Greece, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and USA.

 

7 panel sessions, including 'Model of the investment breakthrough for Crimea' were held during the Forum.

 

Macroeconomic section of the Forum was aimed on new challenges for economy of Black Sea region's countries, forming of sustainable development strategies, as well as perspectives of region's countries relationships with EU. Well-known expert, the Chairman of Board of Institute for economic researches and political consulting, Igor Burakovskiy was a moderator of this section. Deputy Minister of Economic of Turkish Republic, Mustafa Sever got a report about economic situation and politics.

 

 

Industrial sections of the Forum were dedicated to energy, agriculture, infrastructure and tourism. Expert of Department for Energy market regulation of the Turkish Republic, Okan Yardymdzhy, presented report about gas supply of the region to 2020.

 

Issues of adaptation of modern irrigation systems for Ukraine became the most important topic at agrarian section. The best practice in this sphere was shared by Aaron Shaper, the Vice-President and Director General of Valmont Company, the biggest producer of irrigation systems in the world.

 

 

Tourism section was focused on sphere of business tourism development, including exhibition and conference as an accelerator of development in touristic sector.

 

The best international practices in this sphere were presented by Beka Dzhakelli, the Coordinator of European region of World Tourism Organization, Magnus Vetterholm, the Director General of National Chain of «Reikartz Hotels & Resorts», and Guniz Atiz Azrak, the Director General of Istanbul exhibition and conference-center.

 

Also, the Forum was attended by Editors and Analytics of leading international Medias, who has been participated the Forum's panels as speakers: the Editor of fDi Magazine, Financial Times, Courtney Fingar, the Analytic of Eastern Europe of Economist Intelligence Unit, David Dalton, and the Chief Editor of Today's Zaman, Sevgi Akarchemshe.

 

The main partner of the Forum was the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA). Also, such companies as 'Kraft Foods Ukraina', Valmont Company, B.C.Toms&Co, P3DP (the USAID program, Kiev), Coordination Office of UNDP in Crimea and other commercial organizations gave support the Forum.

 

Italian yard of the Livadia Palace was a platform for exhibition, that consists of two parts:

 

1 part: Governmental works (6 stands: Regional review, Agrarian potential of Crimea; 2 stands with Business climate, one of which had information about regulatory approval system, land auctions, the second had information about legislative initiatives; stand with tourism complex of Crimea).

 

2 part: Investment potential (7 projects in spheres of agro industrial complex, business plans of which were developed in frameworks of Investment Activity Development Program and 1 project 'Creation of a dairy farming and cattle breeding complex with production of electrical power and bio fertilizers', as well as projects aimed on creation of industrial parks on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea).

 

 

During the Forum 4 Memorandums of Cooperation between the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and following potential investors were sighed up:

Also, bilateral talks between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Chairman of Board of the biochemical company 'Ferring', Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in Lausanne Frederic Paulsen were held in the frameworks of the Forum.

 

The Forum was covered by 15 representatives of international Medias and more than 60 representatives of Ukrainian and regional reporters. Information about the Forum was updated on-line.