The Role of Infrastructure in Ensuring Sustainable Socio-economic Development and Competitiveness: Current Issues in Russia and Abroad

ROSGEO presents a draft roadmap for the development of geology up to 2050. Leading experts in the geological branch, scientists, representatives of related industries and minerals developers have worked out this draft for several months. The work was conducted at various expert sites during the foresight sessions.

The placement of SNs under the Russian law can be incentivized by the introduction of access criteria for non-qualified investors. Federal Law 75-FZ introducing SNs in the Russian securities market entered into force in October 2018. The SNs novelty rests in that under certain circumstances, specified in issue documents, their issuer is allowed to pay the note holders less than the face value of the notes. Those circumstances include a range of triggers, such as changes in the costs of goods and securities, currency exchange rate, interest rates, official statistic data, inflation rate, etc. Circumstances determining the payments to note holders also include the default by corporate, sovereign and municipal entities (reference entities), which laid the groundwork for the issuance of Russian CLNs.

So far, there have been no SN offerings under the new law. Structured products (including those originated in overseas jurisdictions) were available to Russian investors previously. The notion of a ‘structured instrument’ is broader than that of a ’structured note’. Structured products include not only instruments that do not guarantee the face value of a note, but also those that protect the investors’ capital against loss (the so-called investment bonds). The latter entitle their holders to claim from the issuers the repayment of their face amount, a minimal fixed-rate coupon and additional sums (depending, e.g., on prices for some assets. Typical examples of these products are deposits and bonds whose issuer has a sovereign-grade rating, which also contain a derivative component (a put option on some asset).The embedded derivative component allows a higher yield, while the interest income on the note ensures the repayment of the face amount.

On June 30, 2019, there were 168 structured instruments issued by Russian market participants, including capital-protected products, , equivalent to around $2.15 billion, of which 109 issues ($90.366m) were denominated in rubles, 52 ($654.7m) in US dollars, and 7 ($71.6m) in euro.

This paper, prepared by UNESCO, gathers examples of the introduction of AI in education worldwide, particularly in developing countries, analyses how AI can be used to improve learning outcomes, addresses the challenges and policy implications of introducing AI in education.

Economic forums — a party or work? I saw several posts in my feed following the Sochi forum on the topic of «why do we need economic forums — everyone just hangs out and nobody does anything» and decided to describe the experience of the #UdmurtiaTeam at such events.