Special economic zones continue to be one of the key tools for the development of territories, attracting investment in priority industries, creating points of economic growth, and forming entire industry clusters. The International SEZ Forum, which is being held for the second year in a row, is becoming an important platform for discussion of development prospects and interaction between domestic and foreign SEZs by management teams of such investment sites, manufacturing companies and investors. This year we have invited colleagues from BRICS countries, the Republic of Belarus, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the UAE to Dubna near Moscow to continue the work started a year ago on sharing experience, establishing mutually beneficial partnerships and building new cooperative ties. I am confident that the work at the Forum will be productive and will allow us and our colleagues from friendly countries to implement more joint projects in promising areas of cooperation.