This year's St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, with the key topic of "Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda," means that participants are going to talk about Russia's dependence on oil and other natural resources along with emerging technology sector and global currencies' volatility. 

Oil and gas will remain the backbone of the global energy mix and big oil companies are coming to the forum as usual to discuss oil prices and advancement of the oil and gas industry.

Russia has set the target of boosting its non-resource, non-energy exports up to 250 billion U.S. dollars a year by 2024. The key measure for achieving this goal is the digital transformation of manufacturing, which will enhance the competitiveness of Russian production and facilitate its integration into global supply chains. Therefore, many leading technology companies will show up to enhance the influence of advanced technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have become a key factor in the success of technology companies and far beyond: the use of AI leads to competitive advantages in all areas of business. Therefore, Russia is actively pursuing the development of its own national AI strategy.

Moreover, Russia is reaching out to countries like China for more cross border investments into AI, automation and fin-tech, as China and Russia have maintained close economic ties in recent years under the framework of strategic partnership, and maintained close cooperation in areas like e-commerce and digital economy.

(CGTN's Xia Cheng also contributed to the story.)