On the sidelines of the 8th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, a presentation of the “Arctic Startup Expedition Far East and Arctic of Russia” (ASE) took place, the purpose of which is to develop the human capital of the regions of the Far East and the Arctic through supporting initiatives and projects of the creative economy.

ASE is carried out with the support of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic and the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The Agency for Strategic Initiatives to promote new projects will provide support to ASE through the Far Eastern Project Office of the Center for the Development of the Creative Economy.

According to the Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunkov, the achievements that Yakutia demonstrates in creative industries and information technologies should become the property of all of Russia.

“I am very glad that our startup expedition project has confidently overcome the scale of one region. Yakutia considers the most important task to be the development of areas whose priority has been designated by the President of the country. Supporting creative industries is one of the areas where the republic has achieved serious success and is ready to share experience and scale it in the regions of Russia,” said the head of the republic, Aisen Nikolaev.

Director of the ASE Creative Economy Development Center Ekaterina Cherkes-zade noted that over the past 20 years, Russia has learned to invest in the IT sector. “Now we need to go the same way in the creative sector. I am confident that the result in this industry will exceed all our expectations. On the part of the Center, we will support our colleagues and, of course, first of all, with expertise,” she said.

The event will be held in the format of a competition in eight areas, including cinema, animation, architecture, game development, fashion design, and will cover 18 regions of the Far East and the Arctic, and the finals will be held in eight cities.

“Arctic Startup Expedition Far East and Arctic Russia” is a continuation of a unique project - the Far Eastern Startup Expedition, which Yakutia launched back in 2019. ASE contributes not only to identifying the creative potential of the macroregion, but also to generally increasing the contribution of creative industries to the country’s economy.

The competition will be held in several stages: correspondence stages and final stages of 8 directions, and the final event will be held at the federal level in 2024. The total prize fund of ASE DAR is 8 million rubles.

The organizers of ASE are the Ministry for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Innovation Development Fund of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, the Development Corporation of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Youth Northern Forum.

Detailed information about the project and accepting applications on the official website: https://asedar.rf