Opening address of editor-in-chief.

Currently, humanity is concerned about two major issues: national security and economic development. At the same time environmental threat seems more distant and therefore less dangerous. In solving the problem of economic development a priority role remains with the market economy. The article notes the existence of a fundamental difference in the target objectives of business and environment: development of market economy and business does not meet the requirements of efficient nature management and environment and causes further environmental degradation. In this regard, there is a concern — if the society continues to develop only on the principles of market economy, it itself will speed up the arrival of a global environmental catastrophe.

Professor Emeritus of the University of Erlangen, having a PhD from the University of Granfild and the Moscow Energy Institute, member of the VDI-GEU Advisory Board, winner of the “Global Energy” 2005 prize, Klaus Riedle is a world leading specialist in the field of gas turbine power. Under his guidance were designed the latest generations of Siemens high-performance gas turbines.
Scientific activities of Klaus Riedle:

• the world’s leading specialist in the field of gas turbine power;
• participated in projects for developing “Westinghouse” systems W 501FD and W 501G, based on which in 1999 at the power plant in Florida (USA) the world’s largest 60 Hz 501G machine was launched;
• has developed the latest generations of Siemens high-performance gas turbines;
• introduced new materials and technologies into production, including single-crystal superalloys for the first rows of blades, cooling systems with a film layer and thermal insulation coatings for guiding blades and rotor blades of power gas turbines;
• created improved high-temperature, high power gas turbines of 8000H series

Country of the Rising Sun has always been at the forefront of high technology. Prior to the accident at “Fukushima-1” nuclear power accounted for about 30% in the overall structure of the Japanese energy consumption. After the disaster the Japanese tried to compensate the lack of nuclear power with the increase in mineral resources imports and with generating own energy by renewable energy resources. Oil imports in the first years after the accident were growing. But such a replacement is very expensive for Japan’s budget, as rejection of peaceful atom has led to record trade deficit figures. Restarting the nuclear program in Japan after the events at “Fukushima-1” was a rather complicated and delicate matter. On the one hand, psychological aspect did not allow to restart using peaceful nuclear energy, because the memory was still keeping fresh fears after the accident. However, from an economic point of view NPP restart was only a matter of time. This adds additional strength to energy companies in improving their strategies. In the basis of nearly a century-long success of Mitsubishi Electric there is a special, time-tested and experience-tested company’s philosophy. Mitsubishi Electric proclaims seven basic principles of its activity: trust, quality, technology, social responsibility, flexibility, environmental protection and growth. Corporate motto of Mitsubishi Electric “Changes for the better” affirms the company’s commitment to continuous improvement in pursuit of the highest standards. This slogan promises to create a “better tomorrow” for each of the clients. In his exclusive interview with Alexander Ageev Katsuya Furuta, Mitsubishi Electric Group Vice President Nuclear Energy, Advanced Magnetic & Medical Systems Marketing Division, Energy & Industrial Systems Group, dwells on the level of the world’s trust in the company’s products, the main features of Japanese management, on the differences in doing business in our country, on promotion of Japanese brands in the Russian market and, of course, on Russian-Japanese relations.

In Russia it is usual during strategic planning process not to study enough and not to take into account the impact of global processes and risks on the Russian economy and the level of its economic security. The article provides a solution of this problem based on an integrated approach to studying the global risks impact. The authors have improved the technique of the World Economic Forum (WEF) for global risks quantitative assessment and have proposed the methodology of assessing the global risks impact on the Russian economy. On the basis of data from the “WEF report on global risks — 2014” the authors demonstrate the method’s application for obtaining estimates characterizing the degree of the global risks impact on the Russian economy and the level of its economic security. In conclusion, materials on the indicative assessment of the global risks impact on the Russian economy according to the 2015 data are presented.

In Russia high interest rates are complemented by strict budget policy, which in the nearest future will reduce government spending and slow down economic growth.

In the recent annual Message of the Russian Federation President to the Federal Assembly he repeatedly addressed the sphere of information technologies and defined the digital economy development as an essential condition to ensure the country’s independence. In an interview with the parliamentary columnist of the “ES” magazine Valentina Nikolskaya, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Leonid L. Levin told about new laws in the field of information technologies, peculiarities of the state’s interaction with printed media. In the conversation he also touched upon the legal gap, regulating rapid prevention and spreading in Internet the information on potentially dangerous psychoactive substances.

In the context of rapid changes in society everything is transforming — the workforce structure, business processes, management techniques and forms of organization, the nature of creativity and assets structure, property rights. With simultaneous reduction in the period of innovation cycles, there is an urgent need for establishing the institute of experts-drivers along with the institute of patent attorneys. Namely experts-drivers will have to lead coordination of the whole complex of interdisciplinary problems: organizational, legal, psychological, investment, economic and others. Such organizational-legal form may be called the institute of super-drivers as an interdisciplinary tool for managing innovation reality of society. Institute of super-drivers, including patent attorneys, will allow inventors and entrepreneurs to overcome many barriers of complexity in their way from concept to realizing idea in the form of a useful product. Also crucial is the opportunity and prospects of collective intelligence development through forming “smart fields”, which contain the innovative potential of the future society.

We continue to publish a series of articles dedicated to the vision of Russia’s development in transition to digital economy. Today we will talk about industry changes.

Impact of the scientific-and-technological advance on the modification of commercial variety of goods and organization of forms and methods of trade is one of the most important conditions for the market environment change. The study of the situation in the field of trade in goods and services via the Internet made by the European Commission (the EC) revealed significant problems hampering the industrial development, innovation and further European integration. To remedy the situation, the EC proposed to provide better access for consumers and businesses to online goods and services across Europe. This is one of three pillars envisaged by the Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. The task is carried out through developing rules of conducting cross-border e-commerce to make it easier, ensuring a more efficient and affordable parcel delivery, preventing unjustified geo-blocking of access to goods and services, providing better access to digital content with parallel improving European copyright framework, reducing VAT related burdens. Measures proposed by the European Commission are to be implemented in 2015-2016.