ANO Creative Economy and the Ministry of Construction will continue to develop the creative potential of cities in 2025

Creating a comfortable and safe living environment is one of the national development goals of Russia for the period until 2030 and in the perspective until 2036, which President Vladimir Putin defined in May 2024. Today, the country's economically active population prefers to concentrate in a few of the country's largest cities and agglomerations, which leads to a distortion in the socio-economic development of regions and even the extinction of small settlements. The problem of internal migration to million-strong cities in search of more attractive living conditions is acute for the country today. And in small towns and settlements there is a creative potential, the realization of which will help to make the living environment for the local population more comfortable, diverse and attractive for living and creating a family.

During the year the Expert Council of the Ministry of Construction of Russia together with the "Russian Creative Week" held a series of strategic foresights "Territory of Creativity - from the project of comfortable urban environment to the strategy of spatial development" in the Far Eastern, Siberian and Volga Federal Districts. The key task of these events is to develop proposals for creating a comfortable city with a set of creative infrastructure. The discussions were also attended by architects, urban planners, managers, and representatives of creative industries.

Various competitions and festivals can be one of the ways to find new solutions to the issue of synchronization of housing projects and creative economy.

This year, the theme of spatial development was reflected in the annual Russian Creative Awards in two categories at once - "Creative Project Developing the City" and "Creative Project Developing Rural Territory". The winner in the urban category was the project of celebrating the 1000th anniversary of Suzdal, and in the rural category - the script of the series "Velkam tu Vasyuki" by author Yulia Gorbunova.

Currently ANO "Creative Economy" together with the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation is preparing a list of methodological recommendations for master plans of reference cities in terms of creative economy. "The main problem for almost all cities remains the search for new functions, since many of the functions laid down during the Soviet industrial past have been lost. And here the creative industries are an ambulance for small and industrialized cities. As studies show, almost every territory has a special creative potential that can be considered as an important economic driver. It was important for us to show the great power and potential of small towns and rural areas, to discuss their new role and place in post-industrial society. We succeeded, and this work will certainly continue. I am sure that next year will be even more intense, productive and exciting," said Marina Mongush (Abramova), President of ANO Creative Economy and Director of the Russian Creative Week Forum.