The session was moderated by Anna Manakhova, Director of the Association. It brought together representatives of federal and regional authorities and of the industry’s leading companies.

The Far East offers unique conditions for adopting autonomous solutions: a shortage of labour, vast distances, difficult geography and harsh weather create acute demand for technologies capable of transforming the macro-region’s economy.
The aim of the session was to move beyond discussing individual pilot projects and to work out a strategy for the systematic adoption of autonomous technologies, which by 2035 should become an integral part of the region’s economy and of everyday life there.

Key topics discussed:

• Where things stand and the first results: a review of experience from pilot projects and of the economic effects achieved.
• The business case: assessing how effective autonomous solutions are in industry, logistics, utilities, agriculture and other sectors.
• The path to scaling up: identifying infrastructure needs, regulatory barriers and the steps required to move from experiments to industrial operation.
• Skills for the industry: training a new generation of specialists and transferring advanced technology.
Participants agreed that the Far East should become the flagship site for building “an economy of a new type” based on autonomous systems, with its experience later replicated across the country.

Session participants:
Dmitry Afanasyev — Chairman of the Board, Association of Operators and Manufacturers of Autonomous Systems “National Autonomous Systems”
Anton Basansky — State Secretary and Deputy Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic
Andrey Chibisov — Acting Deputy Chairman of the Government and Minister of Housing and Utilities, Energy, Digitalisation and Communications of the Zabaykalsky Krai
Anton Yaremchuk — Deputy Governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Dmitry Tretyakov — General Director, Avrora-BAS
Elena Frolova — General Director, Moskvich Moscow Automobile Plant
Ilya Malenko — Director of the Department of Regional Policy and Property Relations, Ministry of Transport of Russia