Digital Economy and Finance: Problems and Prospects

On March 16, 2023, Saint Petersburg University of Management Technologies and Economics held VI International Scientific and Practical Conference «Digital Economy and Finances».

Modern digital technologies define development trends of modern economy and society in many ways: from communication infrastructure to country’s economic policy. Digital economy and finance are crucial development drivers of all activity areas. 

The UMTE has become a platform for discussion of digital economy and during the previous conferences economic, social and legal aspects as well as various issues of teaching students in the time of rapid development of digital technologies, skills and competences to be acquired, were actively discussed by its participants.

The plenary session was opened by Vice-Rector for Research and International Affairs Anna Rumyantseva, who recalled the history of the conference and noticed that over time the conference changed and acquired new features: now online speakers from different regions of the country and even from all over the world can join the discussion. Last year, the collection of conference papers was published by Springer and indexed in the international database Scopus.
For the second year, the conference is held with the active participation of the Institute of Regional Economy Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which acts as a co-organizer and shares its research with the participants. The Director of the Institute Alexey Shmatko drew attention to the fact that today the topic of the conference turned out to be more relevant than ever - digitalization and the financial sphere are very closely intertwined. 

The plenary session moderated by Elena Sintsova, the Head of the Department of International Finance and Accounting, and Professor Vladimir Kunin was held in the form of a panel discussion. They discussed how the practical use of new digital technologies affects the growth and capitalization of companies and the labor market; they also examined the problem of situational modeling of economic processes and the creation of "digital twins" of companies. Regarding the banking and financial investment industry, the use of blockchain technology, digital platforms, and networks for active sales of banking products was discussed. The issues of applying modern artificial intelligence technologies for making investment decisions in the financial markets were considered.

The keynote speeches in offline and online formats were delivered by: Alexei Minin - International Consultant on Digital Economy, UMTE’s Emeritus Professor; Igor Ryskov - Financial Director of Aybarus LLC; Larisa Sannikova - Leading Researcher of the Financial Research Institute under the Ministry of Finance, Doctor of Law, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Andrey Mikhailishin - General Director of Digital Payments LLC; Yaroslav Kabakov - Strategy Director of Finam IC.

The discussion continued at a session of the section «Digital Transformation of the Russian Economy», which was moderated by Sergey Kuznetsov, the Head of the Scientific Department of the Institute of Regional Economy Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor,  UMTE’s Emeritus Professor, and Tatiana Yurchenko, Associate Professor of International Finance and Accounting.

The conference continued its work on March 17 with a section «Economic and Financial Processes in the Context of Digitalization» and a student roundtable.