The Investment Forum – EMPEC 2007, which was attended by more than 330 participants, took place with tremendous success at the Congress Center TPP in Moscow on June 4-5, 2007.

The International Council of Institutional Investors joined forces with the government and business leaders of Russia and Eastern Europe to hold the 2nd annual EMPEC. A leading real estate company, Miel Brokerage was the gold sponsor of the conference, and the supporting partners included the Russian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Russian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and a global private equity firm - Pacific Corporate Group (PCG).

EMPEC 2007 began with opening remarks from Andrey Sharonov, the Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, who shared his perspective on the progress made with the Russian Venture Company (RVC), the largest Venture Capital Fund of Funds in Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Sharonov reminded that during EMPEC 2006 he for the first time publicly announced the terms of RVC and demonstrated the early success of the program. His presentation was later followed by a fascinating discussion between the mastermind of RVC program, Yury Ammosov and its 1st round tender winners, Sergey Romashov of VTB Asset Management and Dmitry Chuhlantsev of Finans Trust, about early-stage venture capital investments and the future direction of the VC capital industry in Russia.

During the first day of the conference, 23 speakers made their presentations including world-class institutional investors such as Pacific Corporate Group and EBRD. The president of PCG, David Fann, discussed the factors that drive limited partners to choose emerging markets. The press and many of the participants were especially interested to hear the executive interview with Arkadiy Dvorkovich, the head of the Russian Federation Presidential Experts Directorate, whose insightful remarks regarding the plans of the Russian government in attracting new investments were one of the highlights of the conference. Roberta Brzezinski, Managing Director at global direct investment firm EMP Global, followed up with the discussion of private equity on developing economies. Managers from leading stock exchanges such as Deutsche Borse, NASDAQ, RTS and NYSE Euronext, discussed the recent trends in the booming IPO markets during a very stimulating panel.

During the second day of the conference, Alona Ponomareva of International Finance Corporation and Michelle Smith of Overseas Private Investment Corporation of US government gave a thorough overview of the impact private equity investing had on emerging markets over the last 20 years. Jack Barbanel, the President and CEO at Moorgate Capital Management, and Kirill Dmitriev, the Managing Director at Delta Private Equity Partners, presented their views on the future of the industry from the perspective of general partners. EMPEC 2007 was covered by 5 TV stations and dozens of prominent media organizations including the lead media partners of the conference, Vedomosti and SmartMoney.