Eurasia

PANEL 1. The rise of Eurasia – How COVID-19 may reshape geopolitics and multilateral cooperation

Building relations between countries and nations is a traditional and core element at the level of the international community. The power of geopolitical decision-making processes can deeply determine the future development of the Eurasian economics and financial relations after COVID-19, owing to the possibility of an even more comprehensive and fruitful cooperation. At the level of the global protection against the common and invisible enemy, the Eurasian countries showed the strength of partnership, support and helpfulness.

Today, the so-called ‘Health Silk Road’ is one of the key channels for the medical and technological cooperation in the world. To recover from global crisis after pandemic requires international cooperation, therefore multilateral institutions have a key role as well in creation and execution of strategies in economical reopening and sustainable development since they are authorized to give guidance on necessary changes in all sphere including in economy, society and governance as well.

Amid the novel coronavirus, Eurasia became the epicentres of the current geopolitical transformation processes, and the improvement can be endless. Regarding to the current global uptrend of the sustainable development goals and achievements, the further improvement of the Eurasian geopolitical liaisons can produce adequate common solution ways.

This panel is organized to exchange experiences on crisis management and collect the latest information about the upcoming geopolitical trends and issues influenced by pandemic, furthermore, to ensure a platform to share thoughts and scientific results in connection with the prospective outcomes of the transcontinental Eurasian partnerships after COVID-19.

PANEL 2. Well-balanced and sustainable growth in Eurasia after COVID-19 – Changes, prospects and the future

The sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease has frozen the global economy and the financial system has already felt a dramatic impact, presenting the toughest financial and economic outlook in decades. The world’s economic and financial system are deeply vulnerable to disruption due to global supply chains and distribution networks. Given this interdependency, once the pandemic ends, more fundamental changes are likely to emerge both in the economic and financial sector.

The pandemic has shed the light on the need for a more sustainable economy and Covid-19 should serve as a warning for climate change as these risks pose severe impact on the economy and financial system. Taking into consideration the deterioration in the international outlook, productivity of the Eurasian economics is the key to rebuild the predictable growth and deepen the partnerships at transcontinental level. As for the financial sector, the world is heading for another kind of banking system. After the financial crisis of 2008, the financial system experienced the emergence of digital and FinTech services which can change the traditional role of the banking system and payments as well and the recent pandemic can accelerate this process.

The aim of the panel is to illuminate the effect of Covid-19 to the economic and financial structure, as well as the possibilities and challenges regarding the development of these sectors.

PANEL 3. Smart cities for a healthy future? Innovation in urbanisation and the importance of digital literacy

It is fair to say that the global spread of COVID-19 had the most significant impact on big cities, where population density increases the possibility of virus transmission. Social distancing, as one of the keywords of 2020 might get harder to guarantee in megacities, but certainly not impossible. The need of decreasing people-to-people contacts highlighted the importance of technology in cities, smart solutions. Technological developments have proved to be essential in modern city management: the incorporation of ICT and cutting-edge technology in city planning and urban development has major contribution to efficiency, sustainability and welfare and as we observed in recent months, health as well.

The panel discusses the acceleration of smart city developments due to the COVID-19 and possible implications for the future. But smart cities require a smart population too, one that is capable of adapting to the usage of cutting-edge technologies in the everyday life. This leads to the need of modernising the educational system, partly to increase digital literacy and specially to provide highly trained professionals for the job market, to create and implement solutions that keep up with the latest trends.