The special session titled “Challenge of new technologies: from digitalization to medicine” was attended by Sergey Cheremin, head of the Department of Foreign Economic and International Relations of the Moscow Government.

“Digitalization is one of the key areas of urban development, without which it would be impossible to remain a competitive metropolis today,” Sergey Cheremin emphasized at the beginning of his presentation. “Around 100 large-scale projects are being implemented in Moscow. In each case we vigorously apply not only digital technologies, but also artificial intelligence.”

When the task was set to create a system of intelligent traffic management, the Moscow Government studied the experience in this area of​ such large cities as Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, New York, London, Madrid, Milan, Berlin, and Vienna. “Along the way, we established interaction with many specialized companies, ranging from Singapore Technologies, Siemens, Thales to Swarovski, which, as Sergey Cheremin pointed out, “at that time had one of the most advanced technologies for making smart traffic lights.”

Furthermore, Sergey Cheremin continued, “We came to the conclusion that we need a compilation of all technological solutions applied in these cities, and we need our own software. As a result, we have created a unique system that we are proud of.” Despite views expressed by sceptics that the proceeds from this considerable investment would never make way back to the city budget, they paid off in less than three years.

Today, the system of intelligent control of traffic lights, the Moscow Government Minister Sergey Cheremin emphasized, not only “helps to improve the mobility of traffic participants... In the city, the statistics of lethal cases has sharply decreased, and the number of road accidents has decreased. “In addition, citizens use convenient applications in mobile smartphones, in particular, when calling a taxi. A smart network of parking lots is set up.”

The Moscow government has also introduced biometric payment for travel in the metro based on a personal photo entered in the database. “I think that few megacities in the world can boast of such advanced solutions,” said Sergey Cheremin and added: "We plan to extend this system to all public transport in the foreseeable future.”

To ensure security, a video surveillance system has been deployed in the city. These are more than 220,000 cameras integrated into a unified system that supply information to data processing and storage centres. There is also a unique project: “Digital Twin of Moscow”; it aggregates all information not only about buildings and the urban environment, but also about underground communications. Today, it is applied as a key tool for making urban planning decisions and mapping out the city development strategy.

It is no coincidence that in 2022 Moscow took first place in terms of infrastructure development and quality of life in the rating of the UN-Habitat program “Urban Prosperity Index.” Sergey Cheremin commented: “This success could not be achieved, if there were no digitalization of all spheres of urban life.”

In 2024, Moscow was also listed among the world’s megacities that skilfully and timely introduce innovations. Special emphasis is placed on improving the efficiency of healthcare. Moscow has introduced a medical decision support system, a unified management system for medical institutions, computer vision for analyzing radiographic images, not counting out the fact that artificial intelligence is already routinely used when making a diagnosis.

All put together, “it allowed us not only to maintain a high level of medical care in the city,” Sergey Cheremin informed the forum participants. “When we faced the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all these innovations helped to adequately overcome the challenges. Moscow, according to research, was in the third place among three megacities, which most competently coped with the epidemic.” For reference: Seoul and Shanghai neutralized the coronavirus pandemic most effectively. Moscow came third, ahead of Singapore, Stockholm, Tokyo, New York, Paris and London.

Moscow is also the leader among megacities in terms of the quality of education in high school, especially in the field of mathematics, natural sciences, as well as in terms of reading literacy. “All this is due to the fact, Sergey Cheremin noted, that a unique system has been created: the Moscow Electronic School (MES), which allows to effectively control the educational process and, in fact, is a single educational platform – the largest in the world.”

The MES library can boast of “almost one million 700 thousand units of visual lessons created by the best teachers not only in Moscow, but also in the Russian Federation.” Almost all teachers of the metropolis are connected to the system. Every day, over 4.5 million people, primarily schoolchildren and their teachers, use the MES system.

The city authorities also provide over 420 public services electronically. “You can get them on any device anywhere in the world. All these electronic databases are reliably protected from the point of view of cyber security,” Sergey Cheremin emphasized in conclusion.

“I’ve spent most of my professional life working in healthcare. In recent years, when artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning appeared, we had to think about how to navigate the implementation of innovations,” Mujtaba Ali-Khan, head of the clinical innovation group and CEO of Burjeel Medical City (UAE), told the audience.

Answering his own question about what is needed to implement innovative solutions, Ali-Khan expressed the following point of view: “I think two things are needed. First, you have to be adaptable. In medicine, we usually start with the phrase “This is how we used to do it before”, but now, the situation is changing so quickly that it causes confusion and disappointment among managers about what steps to take... Trying to adopt all new technologies is the wrong strategy. This approach will require large financial resources and will not necessarily lead to the desired changes for the better.”

“In my company, I am trying to develop a strategic basis for innovation. The main goal is to unload our staff, doctors, nurses and other employees who “burn out” at work due to under-staffing... When choosing new technologies, I first of all pay attention to those that will lead to improvement in everyday work,” the CEO of Burjeel Medical City noted. “Then there are medium-term tasks: what technologies can optimize, for example, diagnostic procedures and the treatment process. And only then come considerations of long-term planning for the development of the company.”

“New technologies open up not only new opportunities, but also create new challenges, in the sense of risks and threats. The task of government agencies is to identify and manage these risks, most of all, by restoring mandatory requirements and permitting regimes,” - Alexander Doming, Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor), contributed to the discussion.

If a certain experience has already been gained in relation to traditional energy carriers over the past decades, then with regard to, for example, liquefied natural gas (LNG), there are no proven tools and protocols for responding to force majeure situations. Business is aware of this, the expert noted. It is no coincidence that Novatek (the second vertically integrated natural gas producer after Gazprom) “has created attesting ground where experiments are already underway to study the consequences of abnormal negative events.”

Alexander Dyomin also touched upon the widespread fear of robotization on the grounds that soulless machines would steal away, as they say, jobs from humans. “Robots have one incomparable advantage,” the expert said. “The loss of a robot cannot be compared to the loss of a human life. Wherever there is at least minimal risk to humans, the use of robots is certainly advisable.”

Digitalization seems to be pure technology, Dmitry Toporov, Managing Director of Axenix, stated his point of view. “But we must remember that the “Digit” is primarily about people who come up with technologies for use by other people. From two sides we see the human factor. That is why it is so important to retain the minds and talents that create these technologies.”

…The theorists and practitioners who spoke at the Verona Forum and who are dealing in everyday life with the introduction of innovations were unanimously supportive of the conclusion that new technologies have become a factor in its own right in the economic and social development.

Therefore, educational work is essential and should be introduce to the society to make people aware and ready to accept rapid changes in the transition to new technological levels. No less important is to develop what the Arabic medical doctor Muzhtaba Ali-Khan called “the capacity to adapt.”

Vladimir Mikheev

Ras Al Khaimah (UAE) – Moscow.

BACKGROUND

On 5-6 December, the XVII Verona Eurasian Economic Forum цas held in the city of Ras Al Khaimah (UAE), uniting about 1000 participants from 40 countries of the world on one site. The forum was held under the motto “The Art of Innovation” and was devoted to various aspects of the development of economic well-being in Greater Eurasia. The forum was organized by the Italian non-profit Association “Know Eurasia” in cooperation with the Roscongress Foundation and the UAE Chamber of Commerce and Industry.