The online session: Investments for the development of historical territories
The REBUS Forum will become a significant international platform for the exchange of experience in the field of construction in historical centers
Ambitious plans for scaling the forum were shared by its organizers, summing up the results of the online session that took place on March 15. The event was organized by the organizing committee of the International Forum "REBUS: Economics of Construction in the historical center" (the Office of the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency, the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan) with the support of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation, the Union of Architects of Russia, the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The online session has become a platform for preparing for the main part of the forum, which will be held in July this year in Kazan. The participants held several panel discussions in order to exchange experiences and form a common agenda for the summer event.
– We turned to the topic of historical cities based on the current problems of Russian municipalities, taking into account legislative changes that are taking place in the field of building regulation and in the Urban Planning Code. There are new challenges for architects, designers, developers, and regulators of this sphere," said Olesya Baltusova, Assistant to the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan, Program Director of the Forum. – For the March online session, we selected three of the six topics of the future event – investment, intangible heritage in the historical center and legal regulation in the historical center. For discussions, we invited leading experts who work with heritage, business, construction, and tourism.
Sociologist Marya Leontieva emphasized the importance of working with intangible heritage in the context of urban planning and territorial development. – Thanks to the purposeful work of the team of the Republic of Tatarstan on the draft of the new law on the Intangible ethno-cultural heritage of Russia, adopted at the end of last year, the category "Way of life" appeared among the objects of intangible heritage. It creates a logical link between working with heritage and urban development," the expert said. – This allows you to keep a register of such objects and structures relative to specific territories, and make further necessary amendments to the legislation to make this methodology really work, to prescribe recommendations regarding what basic permitted activities are possible for each land plot or historical quarter within the boundaries of historical settlements.
The outcome of the event was the decision to form a working group to create a concept for the development of historical settlements based on the approach to sustainable development of territories. This initiative was announced by Dmitry Verkhovsky.
– I propose to develop such a methodology for the summer forum. We need to create a practical approach, applicable tools, and then governors and municipal authorities will be able to choose what is close to them," the expert says.
– The most "painful" places are marked on the Forum. On behalf of the organizing committee, I invite experts to contact us and share their suggestions. We will create a working group that will prepare speeches, topics, resolutions on all the proposed areas. The work continues," says Olesya Baltusova.
The Assistant to the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan noted that the participation of representatives of ministries and departments of the federal and regional levels plays an important role in the event.
– It is important for us that the Forum is supported by the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation and that it will be held with the assistance of the Union of Architects of Russia. We have invited the Department of Urban Planning Policy of Moscow, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, as well as other federal and regional departments and development institutions to participate," says Olesya Baltusova. – At the same time, we also plan to study the best practices of other countries in solving similar tasks. The results of the work will be presented at the plenary session of the REBUS Forum in July. Based on the results of the event, we will propose amendments to the legislation through ministries and departments that have already become our partners.
Taliya Minullina, Head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency, noted: "More than 1,500 specialists watched the online forum. This suggests that the site we have organized is in demand, and the summer construction forum in full-time format is already arousing the interest of the profile audience. Our ambitious idea is to create an annual platform for the development of the construction industry in Russia. We have grown an Islamic forum. Why not grow a good construction forum? We have high commissioning rates in the country, and several hundred companies that produce building materials, and investors-developers of their own and attracted, and even personnel successes, taking into account federal appointment s. That is, all the conditions are there."
More than twenty specialists from leading design organizations, development institutes, relevant departments and companies implementing projects in historical city centers spoke at the online session.
In addition to listeners from various regions of Russia, participants from other countries joined the online session: China, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Germany and Italy. Guests from 15 countries are expected to attend the main event in July.
The online session is available for viewing in English at the link https://rebusforum.ru/en-online .
Learn more about the content and main topics of the online session – if you want to watch the speeches yourself:
The speakers of the session "Investment Instruments for the Development of Historical Territories", dedicated to investments and the development of the PPP mechanism in historical cities, were Andrey Tolmachev, General Director of the Kaliningrad Region Development Corporation JSC (speech time code: 1:30:00), Sergey Lutchenko– First Deputy Chairman of the Urban Planning Policy Committee, Chief Architect of the Leningrad Region (time code of the speech: 1:50:00), Oktay Usta - project manager of the Turkish company Polistroykapital LLC (time code of the speech: 1:13:00), Konstantin Makarevich – Partner, Head of the infrastructure and PPP practice of JSC "Best Choice" (time code of the speech 02:05:00), Alexander Lunkin - Head of the PPP and infrastructure direction of JSC Bank DOM.RF (time code of the speech: 2:30:30). The session was moderated by Egor Dontsov, Director of the OKN sector of Spectrum Group, who shared his experience as a speaker (speech time code: 55:50), and Elina Zhiganova, Head of the Public-Private Partnership Development Department of the Investment Development Agency of the Republic of Tatarstan (speech time code: 51:33).
The conditions for the involvement of cultural objects in economic turnover, problems and opportunities for investment in historical territories, priority PPP models and key features of project financing in this area, experience in implementing projects in the Russian Federation and abroad were considered. The speakers presented proposals for the successful development of historical territories.