The panel discussion «Golden Fund» Russia-Africa" at SPIEF 2025

The panel discussion "Golden Fund" Russia-Africa" ​​was held at SPIEF 2025 on the 21st of June. It was organized by the Government of St. Petersburg, the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg (CER).

The discussion was moderated by Maxim Zalyvskiy, Head of the Project Office of the Russian-African Network University (SPbPU), and Galli Monastyreva, Director of Humanitarian Projects of the Association for Economic Cooperation with African Countries and member of the Expert Council on Development and Support of Comprehensive Partnership with African Countries of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Yevgeny Grigoriev, Member of the Government of St. Petersburg and Chairman of the CER, delivered a welcoming speech on behalf of the Governor of St. Petersburg, A.D. Beglov. He proposed creating a regional Association of Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities (mainly Leningrad) in St. Petersburg on the basis of the St. Petersburg State University.

"More than 100 thousand Africans from all African countries have graduated from St. Petersburg universities. Our graduates are the "golden fund" of Russian-African relations, fluently speaking Russian and holding high government positions and influential positions in society in their countries, professionals in various industries and fields of activity."

During his speech at the panel discussion, Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo Pavel Shevtsov called the African direction one of the priorities for Rossotrudnichestvo and also reported that the next Forum of graduates of Russian and Soviet universities will be held in October 2025 in Tanzania.

The panel discussion also included the Rector of the St. Petersburg State University of Economics Igor Maksimtsev, the Rector of the St. Petersburg State Chemical-Pharmaceutical University Igor Narkevich, the Vice-Rector for International Affairs of the St. Petersburg State University Sergey Andryushin, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Guinea Nyakoy Aba, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Ethiopia Genet Teshome Jirrou, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Mali in St. Petersburg Issa Togo, the Honorary Consul of the United Republic of Tanzania in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, heads of African public organizations in St. Petersburg, representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rossotrudnichestvo and other government agencies. The guest of honor of the discussion was the Governor of the Niger State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Mohammed Umaru Bago.

The session became a platform for exchanging opinions between leading experts and representatives of business and government agencies. The participants developed recommendations for improving and strengthening the Russian-African partnership. The experts discussed promising areas of cooperation between St. Petersburg and African countries, involving our graduates in various projects, and supported the initiative of the KVS to create a regional Association of graduates of Soviet and Russian universities in St. Petersburg.