Business Education as a Driver of Cooperation between Russia and Thailand
A delegation from the HSE Graduate School of Business (GSB), consisting of Director Valery Katkalo and Deputy Director Ivan Prostakov, took part in the first Russian–Thai Investment Forum (RTIF), which was held on Phuket Island from November 26 to 28. The forum was organised by the Russian–Thai Business Council with the support of more than 30 partners.
Among the event’s partners were the Thai and Russian embassies, Sberbank, the Rosatom State Corporation, and the Sistema Financial Corporation.
The RTIF brought together more than 400 participants representing around 200 organisations and companies from both countries. For Russia, Thailand is not merely a popular tourist destination—the Kingdom has all the prerequisites to become an important hub for the country’s trade and economic cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region.
The forum’s programme was structured around six tracks:
Development and Real Estate
Transport and Logistics
HORECA & Retail (the hospitality industry segment covering catering and hotel services, as well as the sales channel for goods consumed directly at the point of sale)
Digital Transformation
Education
Biotechnologies and Healthcare
Valery Katkalo, Director of the HSE Graduate School of Business, spoke at three sessions within the education track, including the plenary session, which featured the Ambassadors of Russia to Thailand and Thailand to Russia.
Valery Katkalo
‘Increasing Russian–Thai trade fivefold by 2030—the ambitious goal announced at the opening of the forum—is impossible without understanding how to conduct business in Thailand and in Russia,’ noted Valery Katkalo. ‘We intend to take an active role in addressing this task in cooperation with the Sasin School of Management at Chulalongkorn University, with which we signed a cooperation agreement in October 2025, as well as with other partners in Thailand.’
On the sidelines of the RTIF, the GSB delegation held meetings with the leadership of the Russian–Thai Business Council, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), and representatives of Chiang Mai and Thammasat universities, where potential formats and areas of cooperation were discussed. In addition, the school’s leaders agreed a plan of joint projects with the leadership of the Sasin School of Management and visited its training centre near Phuket International Airport.
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