Second Summit
Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum

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Roscongress Foundation Communication Strategy Highly Appreciated by Professional Community

Silver Mercury, an International Festival of Advertising, Marketing and Communications took place in Moscow for the 25thtime. The joint work of the Roscongress Foundation, SPN Communications and IMA-Press, supported by the Organizing Committee for the preparation and holding of the Second Russia–Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum in the large-scale international business forums, received five awards and a special prize of the anniversary festival.

Two landmark projects were submitted for the award: ‘Promotion of the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum’ and ‘SPIEF Goes to New Countries: Communications Support for the Forum in 2023’.

Alexander Stuglev, Chairman and CEO of the Roscongress Foundation, noted the importance of professional preparation for events of such a scale, which themselves become a communicative platform for representatives of business, science and culture of entire continents. ‘It is gratifying to be recognized by professionals on the brink of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum2024. I consider it a high evaluation of our efforts in improving approaches to preparing and organizing events of high international level. Developing a communication strategy is a synergy of two important components: knowledge of the ‘laws of the genre’ of effective communication and immersion in the cultural code of the audience. Using these aspects allows us to plan a promotion and information strategy at the highest level, creating a positive attitude of the parties to cooperation and contributing to the creation of a constructive basis for future cultural and business dialogue’.

The main mission of the project ‘Promotion of the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum’ was to strengthen the image of Russia and create a relevant image of African countries among the Russian audience. The project operator was the Roscongress Foundation with the support of SPN Communicationsand IMA-Press. Throughout the duration of the project, five announcing events were held and a press tour to the Forum was organized for journalists from 27 African countries. The project received two awards at once: silver in the ‘Best B2B/B2G PR Campaign’ category and bronze in the ‘Best PR Support for an Event’ category.

Another project supported by SPN Communications, namely‘SPIEF Goes to New Countries: Communications Support for the Forum in 2023’ took an honorable bronze in the category ‘Best PR Support for an Event’ and two more in the categories ‘Entering a New Market’ and ‘Best B2B/B2G PR Campaign’. Also, the project took a special prize for scale. One of the strategic tasks that the teams of the Foundation and the agency faced was to build interaction with Russia's new partner countries: India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. It was necessary to create effective communications with the target audience of these countries, to increase the recognition and loyalty of local businesses and media to SPIEF.

Second Russia–Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum took place in St. Petersburg on 27–28 July 2023. The events were dedicated to a wide range of relations between Russia and the states of the African continent, which were represented by official delegations from 48 countries and the continent's five largest integration associations. In total, more than 9thousand business, government and media representatives from Russia and 104 foreign countries took part, and more than 50 exhibition stands were built on key sectors of co-operation between Russia and Africa.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a unique event in the world of economy and business, will be held on 5–8 June 2024. The Forum has been organized since 1997, and since 2006 it has been held under the patronage and with the participation of the President of the Russian Federation. Over the years, SPIEF has become the world's leading platform for the business community to communicate and discuss key economic issues facing Russia, emerging markets and the world as a whole.

 

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“We highly value the results of our joint work at the summit. I am sure the achieved results are creating a good foundation for further deepening the Russia-Africa partnership in the interests of our nations’ prosperity and wellbeing.”

President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin

The Russia–Africa Summit, which is taking place in Sochi on 23–24 October 2019, encapsulates the historically friendly relations between the African continent and the Russian Federation. This Summit carries great significance as it is the first of its kind to emerge during a period of major global and international transformations. In response to the aspirations of the people it is representing, the Summit intends to build a comprehensive framework for expanding Russian–African relations into broader horizons of joint cooperation across different fields.

The African nations and Russia share a common understanding of international relations, based on the principles of respect for the rule of international law, equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. Both sides affirm their commitment to support multilateral actions to oppose new international threats, be they terrorism and extremism in all their forms, or declining growth rates. The two sides share a firm conviction regarding the importance of developing trade flows and supporting mutual investment in such a way as to ensure security, peace and development for the African and Russian people.

African countries have huge potential and opportunities that will allow them, once efforts to streamline their economies have been achieved, to emerge as real global players. In recent years, the nations of this continent have achieved major successes spanning the political, economic, social and administrative spheres. Africa has flourished in terms of growth over the past decade, reaching a continent-wide growth rate of 3.55% in 2018.

The African Union Summit, which was held in Niger in July 2019, continued the efforts of the African countries and saw the African Continental Free Trade Agreement come into force, along with its operational instruments. The agreement is one of the key objectives of Agenda 2063, an African development strategy that has been created to address the African people’s desire for prosperity and decent living standards.

These successes are opening up wide-ranging prospects for cooperation between African countries and the Russian Federation, and confirm the determination of African governments and their people to cooperate with multiple partners in order to establish mutually beneficial relations.

With this in mind, we express our hopes that the Russia–Africa Summit will help in the establishment of constructive strategic relations, based on partnership between two sides across various fields, and in the service of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the African people and their friends in Russia.

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdelfattah ALSISI