The 3rd International Conference on Priorities and Distinctive Features of Development in the Baikal Region opened in Ulan-Ude on July 31, 2008. The conference was held with the support of the Government of the Republic of Buryatia, the Irkutsk Oblast and Zabaikal Territory Administration, and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The grand opening ceremony was attended by the following speakers: Republic of Buryatia President V. V. Nagovitsyn; M. V. Slipenchuk, Head of METROPOL Group of Companies and Chairman of the Guardianship Board of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal; and A.M. Sagalevich, Director of the Manned Submersibles Laboratory of the P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Conference objectives:
• develop specific recommendations for ways to create an efficient mechanism of Lake Baikal preservation;
• determine the economic and environmental priorities of Baikal regional development;
• introduce new hi-tech resource- and energy-saving industries that preserve the unique ecosystem of Lake Baikal;
• provide forthcoming projects with their required level of scientific, information, analytical and technical support, and introduce systemic project management to new hi-tech industries;
• resolve the local population’s economic and social problems.
Main conference topics:
• A strategy for developing the region’s economic potential; the factors of sustainable development.
• Russia’s cooperation with Central and East Asia: problems and prospects.
• Geology and commercial deposit extraction and processing. Ensuring the ecologically- and technologically-safe development of Zabaikal region mining.
• The prospects of ensuring improvements in Asian Russia’s transportation system.
• Fuel and energy resource development in the Baikal region: its terms, conditions, and potential reliance on renewable sources of energy.
• The status, problems and prospects of Baikal tourism.
The conference was attended by members and representatives of: the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Federation Board and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, federal ministries, the Government of the Republic of Buryatia, the Irkutsk and Zabaikal District Administration, the ministries and academic institutions of Mongolia, the heads of industrial enterprises and companies, public environmental organizations, along with scientists and experts from Russia, China, Mongolia, the United States, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Monaco and other countries. The conference succeeded in drawing more than 200 people in its work. The final list of conference participants included more than 200 people.
The reports covered a broad range of subjects, including: how the Baikal region fits into Russia’s overall development strategy amid ongoing globalization; the economic development priorities of Siberia and the Far East; the economic activity characteristics of the Baikal Nature Reserve; methods for improving the Republic of Buryatia’s investment appeal; the foreign economic relations of Russia’s border regions; using regional and interregional development zones to create new centers of dynamic economic growth; and using public-private partnerships to develop economic projects in the Baikal region: their prospects and problems. The reports particularly highlighted the importance of investing in human resources – one of the main factors responsible for unleashing the region’s economic potential and achieving the sustainable development of Lake Baikal.
The event’s seminars, display presentations and round tables analyzed how the regions’ economic development will respond to new environmental restrictions, and discussed the best methods for economically managing the regions. Conference participants agreed that it was time to introduce zoning restrictions on the central section of the Baikal Nature Reserve: this would not only help unleash the region’s natural resource potential, but also ensure of the sustainable and balanced development of the Baikal region as a whole. The participants noted that only basic science and high technologies could provide the resources necessary to ensure the environmentally-safe management of the Baikal Nature Reserve’s (BNR) natural resources. They particularly highlighted the need to develop a set of regional policy priorities regulating the economic activities undertaken in the various environmental zones of BNR. They also examined the prospects of the various investment projects proposed for the region. Finally, the participants underscored the importance of remembering that the Baikal meridian represented a unique field of environmentally-safe economic development study, providing solutions that could be used in both the region and the world as a whole.
The conference participants concluded their collegiate planning sessions by developing a systemic action plan for resolving the various problems that have recently surrounded Lake Baikal.