The SPIEF discussed the attraction of foreign specialists to the Russian economy

The participants of the "Welcome to the Team!" session, which was held as part of SPIEF 2026, discussed new mechanisms for attracting foreign specialists and their adaptation in Russia. The key topic of the discussion was the creation of a "green corridor" for talented personnel and the development of a targeted employee search system for priority sectors of the economy.

The issue is becoming systemic against the background of demographic decline, labor shortages and the need for accelerated industrial modernization. According to Alexander Vaino, director of the ASI's Young Professionals department, by 2030, the shortage of personnel in the country may reach 3 million people, which makes the topic of attracting foreign employees one of the key issues for the economy.

The session participants emphasized that working with foreign labor is no longer limited to one model. Low-skilled employees tend to close the gap in basic production and support operations. Highly qualified specialists are needed to solve technological problems in engineering, industrial automation, the introduction of new solutions and the transfer of knowledge to Russian teams.

Natalia Albrecht, Deputy General Director for Human Resources Management at Rusal and En+, presented her own experience in this area. According to her, the companies are building several channels of work with foreign personnel at once: they train foreign students at Siberian universities with an eye to their further employment at foreign enterprises of the group, attract low-skilled workers from India to Russian sites and invite highly qualified specialists from China, technological engineers to participate in the introduction of advanced technologies. This approach allows you to simultaneously solve the problem of current staffing and build a foundation for the future. And the education of foreign students in our country works to develop soft power: returning to their homeland, young people promote the image of Russia, which has a multiplier effect.

"In any of these examples, cultural integration is very important, which we pay special attention to, because this is the only way to seamlessly build a system of relationships between people with different mentalities," Natalia Albrecht noted. For a business, this is not a secondary issue, but a condition for sustainable work: without support, adaptation and clear rules of interaction, even a strong specialist or worker will not be able to fully integrate into the production cycle.

Elena Shmeleva, Chairman of the Council of the Sirius Federal Territory, also spoke about the need to expand international programs for talented youth. According to her, educational and research tracks, including the Big Challenges competition, can become a channel for attracting foreign students, young scientists and mentors to the Russian education system and human resources development.

In a broader sense, the discussion at the SPIEF showed that the labor market in Russia is increasingly divided into two areas: massive filling of the deficit and targeted import of competencies. For the government, this is a matter of economic sustainability, for companies, it is a matter of maintaining growth rates and technological competitiveness.