The meeting was opened by the President of the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences Jiang Jinfa. He expressed deep respect to the Vologda Research Center management and reminded the major milestones of the ten-year cooperation between the two scientific centers. He stressed the importance of relationship between the regions for further joint research collaboration. He also spoke about the success of his country's economy, noting that in 2020 only in China a GDP Annual Growth Rate averaged a 9.8 percent.
Director of VolRC RAS, Doctor of Economics Aleksandra Shabunova in her speech thanked her colleagues from Russian research centers and universities for joining the conference and expressed her sincerest wishes of fruitful work and success to all of the participants of the Conference.
Corresponding Member of the RAS, Doctor of Economics, Professor, Scientific Director of VolRC RAS, Vladimir Il'in in his report Development of Russian-Chinese Relation at the Present Stage noted that forging close links between Russia and China was taking place both at the regional and federal levels. He emphasized that the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation Between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, signed 20 years ago, had become the basis for serious economic success between the two countries.
According to the speaker, in 2020 the trade between Russia and China exceeded $100 billion per year. This was made possible largely due to the launch of the Power of Siberia project in December 2019.
At the end of his speech, the scientist highly appreciated the scientific cooperation between VolRC RAS and the Academy of Social Sciences of Jiangxi Province and expressed hope for further new joint projects.
Head of the Department of Economic Development of the Vologda Oblast Government, Evgenii Klimanov underlined the importance of the agenda of the scientific event for economic cooperation between the two regions. The indexes of foreign trade turnover between the Vologda Oblast and China are constantly growing, and mutually beneficial contacts continue to expand between the two countries at the regional level.
Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Development of the Vologda City Administration Irina Petrova reminded that due to the contacts of two research centers, a cooperation twin-town agreement between Vologda and Chinese Yingtan was signed in 2018, and expressed gratitude to VolRC for taking an active role in the development of international cooperation.
Candidate of Sciences (Economics) Ekaterina Leonidova delivered a presentation Domestic demand in Russia: problems and ways of promotion. According to the author, the household consumption is a key element in accelerating economic performance. The researcher singled out the following ways for enhancing domestic consumer demand: targeted redistribution of income to households through tax reduction, wages increase in budget sector, increase social support measures for low-income groups, a decrease in income differentiation, adopting a broader system of tax deductions that will stimulate the demand of the wealthiest part of citizens, additional demand from the state for domestic goods and services (for example, tourism).
Li Xiaoyu, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Enterprise Economy of the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences, in her report Research on Expanding Rural Consumption in Jiangxi Province in the Context of Dual Circulation noted that rural areas in China still represented a huge consumer market, despite the fact that the share of the rural population in China in 2020 had fallen to a record low of 39.56%. However, the number of farmers working outside the country as migrants continued to grow in 2018 - 2019. The significant loss of labor is one of the reasons for the restriction of consumption in the rural areas of Jiangxi. Research made on the example of this region can provide guidance for decision-making that will contribute to the revitalization of rural areas and improve the quality of development of the province.
Candidate of Sciences (Economics) Kseniya Ustinova in her presentation Entrepreneurship as a Factor in the Development of Regional Markets made a brief description of business environment in China and Russia. She emphasized that the role of entrepreneurial activity in the socio-economic development of the Vologda Oblast was increasing, due to job creation and tackling unemployment issues, production of consumers’ indispensables and ensuring the food security of the territory. Moreover, since the early 2000s the attitude of the population to entrepreneurship has been improved.
Deputy Director of the Jiangxi Development Strategy Research Institute of the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences Sheng Fangfu in his report Current Development Status and the Future Path of China’s etailing noted that China's e-commerce market was growing rapidly. Specifically, online sales of goods and services increased by 1 trillion Yuan in 2020, despite the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. The growth of e-commerce, according to the speaker, was influenced by the following factors: Internet penetration and an increase in the number of Internet users in China, as well as the development of fiber-optic communication infrastructure.
Researcher Irina Dement’eva in her report Russian and Regional Consumer Trends in the Context of the Pandemic analyzed the consumer behavior of the population and described the main trends that the pandemic has entailed.
Summing up the results of the conference, the director of the VolRC RAS, Doctor of Economics Aleksandra Shabunova expressed her gratitude to the researchers for their active participation and wished for new achievements in joint research activities.
