On May 14-16 the All-Russian Insurance Association is to hold

THE SIXTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INSURANCE

(Sixth Annual Russian Insurance Summit)

which is to be convened in the city of Ekaterinburg at the Business Exhibition Center of the Atrium Palace Hotel.

This Conference is the continuation of the lasting tradition in the relations between the Russian insurers and their foreign colleagues.

The Conference is aimed at discussions on the current issues of developing the insurance business both in Russia and abroad, views and experience exchanges concerning main directions of improving both the legislation and insurance practice, consolidation of the cooperation between representatives of the Russian and international insurance markets and of their efficient integration.

Reports, speeches, presentations, exchanges of opinions, discussions and other events are the fundamentals of the extensive Conference programme. They are to give us answers to various questions about main trends of future developments in both the Russian insurance legislation and the legislation of leading foreign states, especially of the European Union. Main topics of the Conference include the most important events of the last year and their impact on the structure of both Russian and international markets, ways of improving the supervision system, Russian and international standards and instruments of supervising insurance companies, results of implementing the Solvency II system in Europe and perspectives of its application in separate national legislations, the present conditions of law enforcement practice in Russia and the most sensitive problems arising from that, and also other issues.

Such conferences have become a sort of international annual insurance summit. The Conference programme together with plenary sessions includes a lot of practical events, for example the master class on improvement of insurance legislation and insurance practices, discussion on the present condition of the computer programming for the insurance field of economy, and others. From this point of view the Conference is a meeting of special interest not only for top managers of insurance organizations but also for specialists of separate branches in insurance business such as financial, legal, information services.

Leaders of the European Union and top managers of the insurance organizations from Europe, America, and Asia are invited to participate in the Conference. The list of participants also includes top management of big insurance and re-insurance companies from various countries, deputies of the Russian State Duma and members of the Federation Council (the lower and the upper chambers of the Russian Federal Parliament), and also representatives of the Russian executive organs of power.

The All-Russian Insurance Association makes it a principle that our international conferences should be convened in the most important and influential cities in Russia (previous conferences were held in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi).

This year in accordance with the decision of the presidium of the All-Russian Insurance Association the conference is to be held in the city of Eketerinburg.

The choice of this city has been motivated by the following reasons:

• Ekaterinburg has the informal status of the third capital of Russia (after Moscow and Saint Petersburg),

• this city is the industrial center of the Ural region with its gigantic factories and plants like Uralmach, Uraltransmach, Uralkhimmach, Uralelectromontrage, and others,

• it is a big transportation junction and logistics center on the Trans-Siberia railway,

• it is a region of rapidly developing insurance business,

• this city together with some other cities of the Urals and the Siberia region has diverse international ties (including consulates of 11 foreign states and branches of more than 200 foreign companies),

• it is a rich industrial, scientific, and cultural center with its profitable geopolitical position on the frontier between Europe and Asia, thus providing this city with favourable perspectives for the 21^st century.

With taking into consideration all the above-mentioned factors Ekaterinburg has been chosen as the site of the 2009 meeting of the Council of Heads of States Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Russia, China, and some other states).

In accordance with the tradition such events are covered by leading information agencies and mass media.