THE ROLE OF GOLD DURING THE PANDEMIC Tatiana Fic

The Corona virus pandemic has The price of gold hit a record reached almost every country in the high not only in the USD but world. An unprecedented shock to the also in other currencies, such global labour market led to severe disrup- as the euro, Chinese yuan, tions in the goods and services markets in Swiss franc, and many other. In a number of sectors, and a contraction of November 2020, the price exthe global output by 3.5%. The pandemic pressed in Rubel terms went up caused an economic shock three times to 462 RUB, a 60% increase over worse than the global financial crisis of the year before. 2008 and an extraordinary response of While the price recorded fiscal and monetary policies. its record high, the total de-

During times of uncertainty and cri- mand for gold dropped to 3760 ses investors regularly turn to gold as an tonnes, an 11-year low. The reasset that provides them with security sponse of consumers, public and a hedge against financial risks, in- and private investors to the criflation and currency fluctuations. It has sis was quite different. Chart 2 also been evident during the pandemic, shows the structure of annual when the conditions of high uncertainty, gold demand by sector. ultra-low interest rates and large fiscal stimuli prompted investors worldwide The global jewellery deto turn to gold as a safe haven and a long mand dropped by 34% as a reterm store of value. sult of high prices and a decline

The year of the pandemic was a “year in disposable incomes, especialof records” for gold. The price of gold ly in China and India which hit its all-time highs, the global gold in4 500 constitute half of the global jewvestment demand reached its historical ellery market. Similarly, Russian maximum, while the demand for jewel4 000 consumers reduced their jewellery and the scale of central bank gold 3 500 lery purchases by 25%. purchases slowed down to levels that 3 000 Although 2020 marked have not been recorded for a decade. 2 500 the 11th year of central bank

At the beginning of August 2020, 2 000 buying, the official sector dethe price of gold reached 2,067 USD 1 500 mand sharply declined, which, per ounce, its historical high, and has 1 000 chiefly, was caused by the disremained at this elevated level since then continuation of purchases by (see chart 1). Despite the development 500 the Bank of Russia. Over the of new vaccines, the uncertainty has re0 last decade the Bank of Russia mained high and the economic recovery was the single largest buyer of 2019 2020 from the pandemic is likely to be uneven gold, adding to its reserves, on Jewellery Bars and coins ETFs Central banks and longer than initially expected. average every year, more than

Chart 1. The price of gold Chart 2. The structure of annual gold demand

Global annual demand in tonnes by sector

4 500

4 000

3 500

3 000

2 500

2 000

1 500

1 000

500

0

2019 2020

Jewellery Bars and coins ETFs Central banks

Russian annual demand in tonnes by sector

250

200

150

100

50

0

2019 2020

Jewellery Bars and coins ETFs Central banks

Germany

Russian Federation

China

India

-50 0 50 100 150 200 250

150 tonnes of gold. In April last year the Bank of Russia stopped its purchases, and currently, it holds about 3000 tonnes of gold, which accounts for about 24% of its reserves.

The pandemic triggered an unprecedented growth of investment demand which increased to 1773 tonnes – volumes never recorded before. The high demand was a result of record-high gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) in ows. The strength of the ETF demand was the primary driving factor for the rising price of gold, which fuelled expectations of higher returns – and led to further investment in these products. The ETF demand originated mainly in Western markets such as the US and Germany.

The bar and coin demand increased by a modest 3% as compared to the year before. However, this concealed signi cant regional idiosyncrasies. The Western markets witnessed large increases in bar and coin purchases as investors turned to gold as a safe haven. Investors in the East, on the other hand, seized on the opportunity to sell gold at high prices to add to their budgets tarnished by the pandemic.

Russian investors also increased their purchases. The demand expanded by 40%, mirroring investors’ need to diversify portfolios, minimise risks and maximise returns. Due to limited access to gold-backed ETFs, the demand for investment gold was satis ed by bars and coins, with coins being the main product due to a high 20% VAT levied on bars. If not for the tax, the demand would have likely been higher as gold bars could have responded to the nancial security needs of a larger group of investors. Chart 3 illustrates the growth of bar and coin demand in 2020 in the US, Germany, China, India and Russia, respectively.

According to the World Gold Council’s research , globally, there are clear perceptions of gold as a safe, durable store of value that provides a hedge against risks during uncertain times. Two-thirds of retail investors surveyed in China, India, the US, Germany, Russia and Canada, consider gold a safeguard against in ation and currency uctuations. They believe that gold will never lose its value in the long run, and they trust gold more than the currencies of countries.

Similarly, Russian retail investors recognise gold as an asset that can provide them with security during crises. More than half of the Russian investors would consider investing into gold despite never having done so in the past. Two-thirds of Russians perceive gold as a hedge against in ation and currency uctuations, and more than half of them trust gold more than the currencies of other countries. Figure 1 shows the perception of gold as an investment asset by investors in Russia, China, India, the US and Germany.

In conclusion, the pandemic has had a signi cant impact on the gold market. The global demand for investment gold reached its historical maximum, re ecting people’s trust in and perceptions of gold as an asset that provides security during uncertain economic times, times when the currencies of countries depreciate and rising de cits pose risks of high in ation.

Chart 3. Bar and coin demand growth in %

The perception of gold by investors in China, India, Germany, the US, and Russia

THEGREATGLOBAL RECAPITALIZATION 2021

George Li lejohn,

Senior Adviser, CISI London

The CISI is a professional body – the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment – with almost 50,000 members worldwide, mainly across Eurasia. We were formerly part of London Stock Exchange, so though we are only 30 years old, we have a 200-year heritage – and a Royal Charter from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We help people, especially young entrants to our sector, understand what is going on, to develop a ‘lingua franca’ which enables them to communicate with fellow professionals around the world.

The need for that common nancial language has never been greater, as the world faces nancial chaos driven by the pandemic, with balance sheets in ruins and a huge and urgent need for sustainable infrastructure development. We need to make sure that capital raisers and issuers round the world are all speaking the same ‘language’ when it comes to expressing their investment objectives, to make the whole process work more e ectively. And we must all reinforce that spirit of cooperation which was the keynote of last November’s important Forum.

Many businesses have taken on higher levels of debt than they would have planned for because of the virus crisis. The demands of this debt may compromise the growth and viability of many of them, and thus investment portfolios, if there are no supportive mechanisms in place. Signi cant government and nancial services e ort is going into understanding and identifying mechanisms to support the recapitalisation of businesses globally.

In February 2021, the CISI published research conducted on behalf of our global membership on this important subject. A key development last year in Britain was a report by TheCityUK, the country’s main nancial lobby group, which laid out the likely scale of over-indebtedness among businesses. They found that, while there is plentiful private capital, it will be insu cient for the task. Instead, they proposed a UK Recovery Corporation, initially state-owned which, it is hoped, would progressively attract more and more private-sector funding. Without action, TheCityUK warned, one third of 2.3 million businesses could struggle to repay government loans and, by March 2021, there would be up to £100bn of unsustainable debt held by firms, of which £35bn would stem from o cial loan schemes.

In his March 2021 Budget, the UK Chancellor ( nance minister) Rishi Sunak painted a picture of Britain’s economy which was at once bleak but optimistic. The UK economy shrank by 10% in 2020 but was forecast to rebound in 2021, with predicted annual growth of 4% this year and a return to pre-Covid levels by middle of 2022, with growth of 7.3% next year.

Some 700,000 British people have lost their jobs since the pandemic began, but unemployment is expected to peak at 6.5% next year, lower than 11.9% previously predicted. This year, Britain will borrow a peacetime record of £355bn.

The pandemic around the world The pandemic has prompted an unprecedented government response worldwide to support health systems and provide lifelines to vulnerable households and rms. Total monetary measures are running at around US$15 trillion, or close to 15% of global GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. At a country level, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for instance estimates that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had taken on debt totals of US$117bn by July 2020, due to pandemic-induced market conditions.

In the US, President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package is aimed at helping Americans and businesses survive the pandemic.

In India, where the CISI has a signi cant base, around 122 million people lost their jobs in April alone. And according to recent gures from the IMF, India’s public debt ratio is projected to jump by 17 percentage points to nearly 90% in 2020, as a result of the increase in public spending due to Covid-19. As with most countries around the world, businesses both big and small have struggled to survive. In the UK, nearly 1 in 20 rms are likely to be pushed into technical insolvency due to the levels of debt built up since March 2020. And this may prove to be conservative, given the second wave of Covid-19.

Zombie firms If these UK companies can continue to meet their day-to-day commitments, they will be able to continue operating, but if dissolved they won’t have the assets to cover their liabilities. The number of ‘zombie’ UK rms – meaning that their pro ts only just cover their debt interest payments – rose by up to 4% in the six months from March to September 2020, meaning that the total share of zombie rms in the UK economy is now 21%, representing over one in ve companies. The demands of this debt may compromise the growth and viability of many businesses, and thus investment portfolios, if there are no supportive mechanisms in place.

This is not to say that supportive mechanisms haven’t been used. Significant government and financial services efforts have been devoted to understanding and identifying mechanisms to support the recapitalisation of businesses globally, and these efforts are continuing apace. So, much work to be done, and we at CISI aim to play our part by linking our members with those of other professions – bankers, accountants and all the rest – around the world.

Istvan Langyel, Secretary General of WACEE – Central and Eastern European Banking Association

WORLD HR TRENDS –

LESSONS FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people’s lives globally: for the rst time, nearly 8 billion people around the world have faced simultaneous measures such as masking, social distancing, restriction of movement, closing of shops, restaurants, theatres, quarantine and curfew. One of the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic is the spread of a remote and hybrid system of sta work. This has implications for the theory and practice of corporate governance and for one of its elements – personnel management.

To understand the scale and depth of changes, it is worth to brie y recall the main ”classical” HR problems:

Admission and adaptation of new sta ;

Operational work with personnel (labour organization);

Labour and business communications management; Sta promotion/motivation;

Measuring the performance of individual departments, directorates, divisions, groups and individual workers through the KPI system;

Health and safety of the community; Sta training/development.

The pandemic did not fundamentally change the role of HR in organizations but had to change the focus of work.

HR with a human face One important consequence of the pandemic in Western countries is a better understanding of the role of the human factor in the success of organizations. In this century, a multi-factor theory of corporate governance (stakeholderism) that initially recognized that, in addition to being responsible to investors and maximizing pro ts, Corporations also have responsibilities to other stakeholders, such as clients, society as a whole or creditors. Employees of the corporation were also usually mentioned at a late location.

With regard to customers, the key requirement was to provide the perfect customer experience; the client’s path from need to completion of the purchase and subsequent experience (customer journey) was widely studied. New positions were created – manager of customer experience management, director of customer satisfaction analysis of product/ service etc. The idea of a ”caring corporation” appeared, which shares with clients their problems and helps to solve them. The company has been created. Instead of products the company began to sell ”solutions”.

The basis of this ”client boom” was the assumption that the client is the main source of pro t of the company, the quality control and at satisfaction of the product/service – the agent of the reputation of the rm (for example, in social networks).

What changes has the pandemic brought? This trend probably would have continued if not for COVID. In the early days of the epidemic, it became clear that the key challenge was not to increase sales but to ensure corporate continuity. In this task, the care of sta has become a key factor. Understanding the role of employees in crisis situations and increasing attention to the human factor in corporate practices determine the fate of companies in the era of the pandemic and probably also in the post-disaster period.

If one accepts the thesis that employees are as important to rms as customers, one can draw interesting parallels ”clients – employees” as discussed below.

In the pandemics, the ”caring corporation” must care not only for the level of satisfaction of clients’ expectations, but also and above all for the health and well-being of employees.

Employee Experience Manager examines how satis ed employees are with the organization and working conditions, including health care; how they assess management e orts in a pandemic; what a team needs to do to work more e ectively. Chief Employee Experience O cer may become a board member.

Like the study of the client’s path, the analysis of the ”employee journey” became fashionable – from the moment of employment, through professional development to the occupation of relevant positions (note that this is a classic HR under a new name that gives it more weight in corporate governance).

While customer ”care” methods began to spread in the work of HR, there

was a danger of transferring aggressive marketing approaches to the eld of personnel management. Creating a pro le of employees, de ning a strategic and current KPI are important tools in the hands of HR, but only until they are applied mechanically, and take into account the personal qualities of individual employees and contribute to their professional development. The goal of HR 3.0 is to attract employees to participate in the realization of the common goals of the company, reducing the level of their exclusion from their work. The development of modern technologies makes it possible to thoroughly study the use of every minute of working time of employees, as well as personal activity in social networks. However, even if this is allowed by current legislation in individual countries, it is contrary to the main goal of HR 3.0 – to create a collective belief that ”we are one team”. We cannot allow personnel management to evolve into ”HR with the face of the robot”!

What do the staff think? When discussing the theory of ”caring company” HR-managers often point out – yes, it is all right, but are immediately interested: how to make employees work much and e ciently? Do the ideas of the company management reach ordinary employees?

The answer is not simple. On the one hand, if there are problems with sanitary working conditions, with technical support of ”remote” or movement of employees – this immediately feels. On the other hand, solving problems takes time, and employees should participate to the fullest extent in the discussion of current problems, have an effective, interactive communication with management. It is also an element ”HR with a human face”. The management of the organization should consider the staff as partners in achieving the goals and avoid the administrative practices of HR 1.0. This is particularly the case for a group of young staff for whom working flexibly, working in project teams with a clear purpose and greater autonomy is more important than traditional financial incentives.

Do top managers understand their employees? In October 2020 IBM Institute for Business Value, in collaboration with Josh Bersin Academy, published an analytical paper with the participation of 1,500 HR executives from 20 countries: ”Accelerating the journey to HR 3.0”. The authors analysed the gap between top managers and HR managers on the situation of sta in a pandemic.

The results speak for themselves: in most cases, the top management involved in crisis management, minimizing the losses associated with the pandemic, simply does not understand the real situation of the staff and the role of HR in the COVID-19 environment. The figures below show a wide gap between the evaluation of managers and staff. 1. High level of business-oriented thinking of employees (whether or not

they consider the goals of the company as their own) – agree: Managers: – 84%; HR – 19%. 2. Does the company adequately assist its employees in acquiring new digital and other skills: Managers – 74 %; Employees – 38 %. 3. Does the company adequately support the physical and psychological health of employees: Managers – 80 %; Number of employees: 46 %.

In order to narrow this gap, it is necessary to apply new methods of personnel management, to strengthen mutual communication ”management – personnel”, to increase the role of the rst persons of the companies in supporting and strengthening the common corporate culture. These measures are important elements of the HR 3.0 model.

Development of HR models before, during and after a pandemic The pandemic has accelerated the transition from classical forms of human resource management to more modern approaches. In real life, these models are rarely seen in pure form, and while theoretically more advanced models provide better corporate performance, a great deal depends on the personal qualities of managers and on the HR sta themselves.

Typically, three models (degree of development) of HR functions are distinguished with their respective characteristics: 1.0 Administrative tasks received from management; 2.0 Play a more active role in supporting analytical business solutions; 3.0 Application of automated processes and artificial intelligence, HR – business partner, ”HR with human face”. The pandemic has accelerated the transition to HR 3.0, as most corporate top managers have recognized the need for change in relation to the role and methods of HR. Among these important changes are the following:

Strengthening the role of the HR service in the organizational structure of rms;

Introduction of Chief Human Resources Officer (HR Director) as a

Board Member;

Change the approach of the HR function to its tasks;

Empathy enhancement by top management and the HR service;

Development of communication with sta ;

A revitalized business-oriented approach by the HR function;

Development of exibility to respond quickly to changes in external conditions; Increased use of new technologies. HR and communication, HR and modern technology If at the beginning of the article the client experience and the client path were compared with the experience and the way of the employee, such a comparison can be made in relation to external and internal communications of companies. Modern corporations spend huge amounts of money on advertising and marketing based on the brand and the anticipated mission of the rm. The same goes for communication with creditors – you have to make yourself look better.

Companies resort to all possible communication channels to deliver their ”messenger” – these are social networks, mobile applications, platforms for teleconferences etc.

To what extent are these approaches applied to sta ? Do rms have a clear strategy for communicating with sta ? Research in this area has shown that employees highly appreciate the regular appearance on their screens of the rst faces of the company with a short message which gives an overview of the situation and tasks in the near future – earlier, as a rule, only the board members met with the rst faces of the rm so often. For example, the Chairman of the Board of a major Hungarian bank sent a short New Year message to the bank’s customers and employees. When asked which word most describes the bank’s activity in 2020, he replied: ”Care”. Care of clients, care of the bank’s collective and of society in general”. This message, I think, best expresses the spirit of the time and gives the right and necessary guidance to sta in an age of uncertainty.

During the pandemic, it became common to establish internal social networks or platforms to discuss company issues. Sta comments and suggestions can be assessed, processed and passed on to management by a dedicated board or HR service team. In a remote environment, platforms have also become the primary tool for conveying a collective assessment of the current situation of an organization, the main operational challenges and strategies in the face of a pandemic.

Thus, the HR 3.0 migration tool was created, and the main challenge now is to properly apply it. The main danger is the formal approach, the application of administrative methods complemented by modern methods of supervision of employees and mechanical analysis of their activities. We cannot allow the unique process of accelerated digitization of personnel management, which became necessary in the era of pandemic, to end with the emergence of ”HR with the face of robot”.

Oleg Le iev,

Ph.D., Production Processes Automation Department Director

FOUNDATIONS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF MINING ENTERPRISES IN MODERN CONDITIONS

The need for digital transformation, determined by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation as part of the strategy for the development of the information society in Russia, is due to the requirements of natural competition. The indisputable advantages that an enterprise receives as a result of digital transformation, expressed in the safety and e ciency of production activities, ensuring product quality and, as a result, reducing costs, are the decisive factors for business today.

The essence of digital transformation is to revise the business model of an enterprise, which is endowed with the property of timely adaptation to changes in external conditions and transforms production into a fully observable and manageable process, ensuring the quality of management decisions based on reliable data. The basis of such a transformation is the end-to-end integration of various enterprise processes,

AWS SERVICES MOBILE CLIENTS DISPATCHING COMPLEX MES/ERP SYSTEMS

MULTI-SERVICE DATA TRANSMISSION NETWORK

PRODUCTION SAFETY

FIRE DETECTION AND FIRE EXTINGUISHING AS

ACCIDENT RELIEF PLAN

PERSONNEL AND TRANSPORT POSITIONING SYSTEM

AUTOMATED TIME SHEETS

GENERAL MINEWIDE ALARM SYSTEM

ROCK BURSTING PREDICTION SYSTEM

AUTOMATED VENTILATION SYSTEM

AUTOMATED AIR GAS CONTROL SYSTEM PRODUCTION SUBSYSTEMS

MANAGEMENT OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

MINING SITE MONITORING SYSTEM

EXCAVATING SITE MONITORING SYSTEM

TRANSPORT DISPATCHING SYSTEM

WIRELESS TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION

TECHNOLOGICAL VIDEO BROADCASTING

PRODUCTION VOLUME MONITORING

PRODUCT QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICAL SUBSYSTEMS

NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT

POWER MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT

MAIN VENTILATION FAN MANAGEMENT

DRAINAGE SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

MINE WINDERS MANAGEMENT

DEPRESSION AND AIR FLOW MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

PNEUMATIC SUPPLY

HEAT AND WATER SUPPLY

the organization of their information interconnection, and the transformation of production into an observable and controlled eco-environment, which leads to a general synergistic e ect and a signi cant increase in the e ciency of individual business processes. The main stage in the digital transformation of mining enterprises is to ensure the principle of observability of production. This is realized by the introduction of new automated control systems or the transformation of existing ones in order to obtain complex data that accurately characterize the processes at each moment in time. As a result, the enterprise receives a set of technologically separate automated subsystems, united by a single, multiservice data transmission network and having a single complex of central dispatch control. The purpose of this stage is to create a single information space between all business processes of the enterprise.

Further stages are characterized by analytical processing of the obtained data, integration with nancial management systems, the formation of a statistical model of the enterprise, the application of arti cial intelligence methods to the data analysis in order to optimize management methods and prepare the most informative data for management personnel of all levels.

The result of the digital transformation of a mining enterprise is a significant increase in the efficiency of production management systems, including MES systems, primarily due to the elimination of the human factor. In the context of digital production, MES is the main tool for generating analytical information based on data collected from digital systems. MES is an integral part of digital production, a tool for controlling production processes for management personnel, a system that forms a statistical model of an enterprise and searches for bottlenecks in production.

Digital transformation allows companies to expand their capabilities, reach and maximize the value chains associated with assets and operations, which is extremely important in the face of changing market conditions and shifting technological landscapes.

Consolidating previously unavailable data streams, improving visibility and analysis of operations, and providing actionable insights on a basis of a better information can dramatically improve enterprise productivity.

All this gives an indication of the inevitable process of digital transformation in all enterprises of the domestic industrial sector, and the company “PROMTEX” is ready to provide expert assistance on this way. Having the necessary experience, the company’s specialists will be able to nd a solution that meets any client’s requirements.

DIGITAL MINING PRODUCTION PROCESSES

In recent years, large mining companies have been actively working in the eld of digitizing their production processes, and this corresponds to the trend towards digitalization of the Russian economy and the realities of Industry 4.0. The goal of the digitalization of enterprises involved in solid minerals extraction is the introduction of unattended technologies at all stages of the production cycle: from exploration and production to the resulting product, and also the creation of a digital twin of the mine using which it is possible to monitor and manage the operation of the enterprise in real-time mode. To date, this task has not yet been achieved due to the lack of an information system that would make it possible to solve it comprehensively. However, there are many software solutions in the market that provide the means to automate and simplify the individual production processes of the enterprise, and their integration allows the enterprise to approach the full digitalization of the mine. There are many groups of information systems used by mining enterprises, depending on the tasks they solve, including dispatch systems, mining and geological information systems (MGIS), and database management systems (DBMS). It is the implementation of the above systems that makes it possible to digitalize most of the production processes, and one of the leaders in the integrated implementation of such software solutions is the Australian company MICROMINE Pty Ltd, founded in 1986 in Perth, Western Australia.

Dispatching systems allow real-time control of all technological processes of a mining enterprise’s daily operation in open-pit and underground mining. One such system is MICROMINE’s Pitram system. The dispatch system, using the data received from corresponding sensors, displays all information on the operation of primary and auxiliary equipment, location of personnel and equipment, works performed, and materials movement.

Database management systems are intended for centralized storage and work with databases of primary mining and geological information, advanced and operational exploration data, as well as any other data obtained at the stage of exploration and development of a deposit. Examples of such systems are Geobank and Geobank Mobile.

Mining and geological information systems are the software that makes it possible to solve a wide range of tasks: from processing primary geological exploration data and creating a geological model of a deposit for reserves estimation to the design and planning of open-pit and underground mining operations, increasing the e ciency of a mining enterprise. This system is the Micromine agship software product from MICROMINE.

Grigoriy Fedotov,

Head of Educational Institutions and Methodological Support Department, Micromine RUS LLC

Ultimate pit contours, 3D models of dumps, and an orebody block model in Micromine MGIS

The geological model of the deposit is the basis for the planning and designing of mining operations. During its creation, exploration data obtained both at the stage of the deposit exploration and exploitation are used. The nal stage in the creation of a deposit geological model is obtaining a block model of a deposit, which makes it possible to estimate the deposit reserves, as well as establish the basic patterns in the distribution of qualitative indicators of a mineral within the deposit boundaries.

This approach to modeling the geological structure of a deposit increases the accuracy of the deposit reserves estimation using modern methods of mathematical modeling and statistical analysis of geological data. In turn, this allows a more accurate cash ows assessment at the stage of strategic planning of deposit development.

Based on the block model, the position of mining operations is designed in the form of 3D models of a pit or underground mine workings at the end of the deposit development. At the same time, the tools presented in the MGIS allow obtaining an “optimal” mining position. The optimality criterion is the maximization of such economic indicators as gross pro t, net present value, etc.

In addition to solving mining design problems, modern software packages also allow solving planning problems. Planning can be performed both for the entire lifetime of an enterprise – strategic, and for shorter periods, for example, for ve years – long-term, or for a week and daily – operational. When determining the order of the deposit development, the global goals of the company are considered: target indicators of economic e ciency, volumes of nal products required to satisfy consumers, etc., as well as technical and technological factors: the number of equipment units, schedule of their repair, availability of equipment, technological features of mining operations. Taking into account a complex set of these factors, the software allows obtaining the optimal order of mining operations with several scenarios for their development to select the most appropriate.

Thus, the following key results of such software solutions integrated implementation are distinguished:

The creation of an integrated geoinformation space and a uni ed digital model of the deposit which is updated and replenished constantly during the process of the deposit development.

The formulation of a strategy for reserves development based on the company’s strategic goals, technical, and technological constraints.

Operational control over the mine operation to improve the quality and safety of the mining process.

Anton Subkhangulov,

founder of Trolley Tech

CREATIVITY IS FOR MAN, ROUTINE –

FOR ROBOTS

WE REALIZED THAT IN ANY CLINIC OR HOSPITAL THERE ARE TASKS FOR WHICH IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO GRADUATE FROM A MEDICAL UNIVERSITY. HOWEVER, DOCTORS AND NURSES IN ALL HOSPITALS AROUND THE WORLD ARE FORCED TO DEAL WITH THEM DAY IN AND DAY OUT. THEY ARE DISTRACTED BY SECONDARY THINGS INSTEAD OF DOING THE MAIN THING – TREATING PEOPLE.

https://www.facebook.com/trolley Techofficialhttps://trolley-tech.com

Tokyo, Henn na Cafe. A robot barista named Sawyer prepares co ee for 5 customers at the same time.

Moscow, the White square. A small robot courier delivers lunches to the ever-working employees of the business center.

Dubai, а police robot is patrolling the embankment. In addition to law enforcement, it successfully helps tourists navigate the terrain.

Voronezh, 2 Kuka robots synchronously cook the seams on the huge 16-meter parts of the future railway bridge. They work under the control of adaptive software that does not require human intervention and replace the hard work of 10 welders.

Robots appear in hospitals, state institutions, banks, work in warehouses, assemble cars and even sew masks in factories. All these are pieces of a puzzle that form a single picture of the global trend towards automation in all spheres of life. As a con rmation of these words, you can consider the graph below:

According to MarketsandMarkets Research Private Ltd data for March 2020, the expected growth of the service robot market is from $ 37 bn in 2020 to $ 201.5 bn by 2025.

Hand in hand with this trend is another one – humanization. Robots are taking on more and more complex, dangerous and physically demanding jobs. They can perform their tasks in unsanitary conditions, in any weather and time of day. They save people from the need to risk their lives and health, and give them the opportunity to focus on more complex and creative issues. Ultimately, improving working conditions and improving the e ciency of business processes will have a positive impact on the development of companies and the country’s economy as a whole.

As the sad experience of last year showed, clinics and medical institutions are now in particular need of robotization. During the coronavirus pandemic, doctors and health workers worked hard to save the lives of patients. Even now, when the incidence of COVID-19 is declining, medical sta is forced to spend a huge amount of time and e ort on routine actions.

This idea was the starting point for the creation of the company “Trolley Tech” and the development of a service robot designed to help the medical sta of hospitals and hospitals around the world.

In a very short time, within just 2 months, the rst trial sample of the robot courier was developed, and in December 2020 it was presented at the international technology exhibition GITEX in Dubai. Despite the increasing robotization of all industries and services, the robot from “Trolley Tech” turned out to be the only one in its niche-multifunctional robots that can relieve not only the medical sta , but also couriers, cleaners, waiters, and remove the most di cult and routine tasks from them.

The audience of the GITEX exhibition received the new robot with great

interest. It was included in the list of semi- nalists of the Supernova Challenge, beating several dozen other technology startups also represented at GITEX 2020.

At the moment, the company “TrolleyTech” has developed 3 modi cations of robots. Each of them signi cantly simpli es a functional area of the medical sta and frees employees from performing heavy, unskilled and dangerous work. Robot courier Disinfection robot Robot concierge.

Let’s talk about each of the three types of robots in more detail.

The robot courier and its modification-with a built-in refrigerator The robot can independently move medicines, biomaterials, vaccines and documents within the building, build routes, avoid people and furniture on the way, open doors and use elevators to move between oors.

The robot is equipped with a cargo container or refrigerator with a temperature of –17 °C for the transport of vaccines. Container/refrigerator load capacity: up to 30 kg Travel speed: 5–10 km/h Battery life: up to 12 hours Robot sanitizer The robot can independently disinfect the air and all surfaces of the premises of clinics and hospitals in accordance with established medical standards and SanPiN standards. Equipped with UV lamps and an ultrasonic antiseptic sprayer for decontamination of the room.

Robot concierge The robot is equipped with a voice and face recognition system, so it can meet and greet visitors, provide them with all the necessary information, measure their temperature and remind them to wear masks. In addition, the robot can take over the functions of primary registration of patients, accompanying them throughout the hospital to the desired department / ward. In addition, the robot can be connected to the device for quick payment acceptance, which will avoid queues of customers at the checkout and speed up the process of their service.

All 3 modi cations allow you to unload the medical sta and allow doctors and nurses to devote more time to their immediate work – care of patients.

In addition, the “Trolley Tech” robots can be adapted to any other eld: industrial production, warehouse cargo transportation, hotel and restaurant business. They can take on all the hard, monotonous, or dangerous work.

Imagine workers who never get sick, do not go on vacation, and are able to work around the clock without rest. They do not need to pay salaries, bonuses, contributions to insurance and pension funds. They are not distracted during working hours by communication with colleagues, and they practically do not need to be controlled. They’re just doing their job.

Automation of routine, template-based and non-skilled tasks will allow company employees to perform their direct duties more e ciently: solve complex creative and engineering tasks, and provide high-quality service to customers.

To return a person to a person – this is one of the main tasks of the company “Trolley Tech”. Its implementation will help people to do what they love, take care of each other and be happy. As a result, motivated employees of companies and satis ed customers will contribute to the development of business, enterprises, services and the economy of all countries as a whole.

You can get to know “Trolley Tech” company better and follow the news on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ trolleytecho cial and on the website https://trolley-tech.com

At Trolex, we save lives. We’ve been delivering world-class occupational safety technology in hazardous environments for over 60 years. Having established market-leading technology in Gas Detection, Strata Monitoring, Ex Connectors and Mining & Industrial Sensors, we have brought to market “the next generation of particulate monitors” as we tackle the biggest occupational safety hazard in modern times - respirable dust. Globally, over 700,000 people die each year from respiratory illnesses.

The first release in the Trolex Particulate Monitoring Range is the Air XD, the world’s first and only open-path, full spectrum, highly accurate real-time dust monitor that can operate successfully in a wide variety of harsh and hazardous industrial locations, including mining, construction, aggregates and mineral processing.

Most dust monitors are complicated, expensive to maintain and lose accuracy when around high amounts of dust. The Air XD solves these problems.

Its open-path brushed stainless steel duct assembly with anti-static coating minimizes dust settlement allows free flow of air through the unit and enables the Air XD to function even in heavy dust loads. The Air XD is 10-100 times more accurate than pre-existing dust monitoring technology, maintaining its laboratory accuracy in dust-loads of up to 1500mg/3 (at least 10 times more than other dust monitors).

Multi-parameter detection points and a wide scatter-zone chamber allow the Air XD to monitor every particle flowing through the unit, from 0.35 to 40 microns, in real-time. Our advanced, on-device algorithm processes 10,000 particulates per second, providing a detailed overview of dust loading in the operating environment. Device connectivity options allow Air XD to report live particulate readings and improve company processes.

Like all our products, Air XD was built to save lives while future-proofing businesses, increasing productivity and delivering a clear ROI.

DIGITAL LABOR RELATIONS: COMPANY VISION ”EASTSIB HOLDING”

Oksana Grobovets,

HR Director of Eastsib Holding

OIL AND GAS IS ONE OF THE KEY INDUSTRIES IN THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY AND THE RAPIDLY GROWING DIGITAL REVOLUTION COULD NOT BUT AFFECT THE COMPANY AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS IN THIS PROCESS ARE STATE POLICY AND THE DESIRE OF THE OIL AND GAS COMPANIES THEMSELVES TO IMPROVE WORK EFFICIENCY.

Despite bureaucratization, innovation is increasingly being introduced into labor laws. Digital technology is becoming integral to the development of employment systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital upgrades in companies and has become an incentive for legislative change. Since the law on electronic employment records took e ect in 2020, speci c provisions of the national program “Digital Economy” have begun to be implemented in the eld of HR.

The country’s leadership believes that accelerating the digitalization of labor legislation is a key factor in the recovery of Russia’s economy after the pandemic. The next step will be to bring HR administration to a higher digital level. This will reduce the number of documents processed, the costs of document processing and logistics, and the amount of repetitive work done by personnel departments.

Digital technology is being actively used in important areas of HR such as personnel assessment, development and training. The types of digital technology used for such purposes include arti cial intelligence, machine learning, virtual and augmented reality. Digital tools such as chat bots, robot recruiters, resume aggregators and built-in analytics have great potential for use in the hiring process.

Despite its advantages, digitalization of HR raises several questions, primarily in the eld of information security. Business enterprises must ensure data security. Furthermore, developing the digital economy requires the creation of specialized services and databases. Another barrier is the nancial component – innovations require signi cant costs, especially at the implementation stage. There is also a need for revising labor laws since modern documents quickly become outdated.

Eastsib Holding has taken a wide range of measures to introduce digital tools in the eld of human relations. The primary asset of the holding is RNG JSC, which develops the Eastern Blocks of the Srednebotuobinskoye oil and gas condensate eld in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The group of companies has over 2,800 employees, more than 80% of which are shift workers. Another feature of the holding is its territorial location. Subdivisions of Eastsib Holding operate in Yakutia, Tyumen, Samara, Irkutsk region, with its head o ce in Moscow. This creates speci c requirements for the digital upgrading of HR management.

Eastsib Holding has done much to digitalize personnel record maintenance, personnel training and the implementation of the new legislation. Several business processes have already been automated: recruitment applications, employee hiring, business travel. Personnel record keeping has also be automated and includes vacation requests, transfers, dismissals, resignation lists. At the testing stage, there is an electronic application for charter ights and automatic distribution of pay slips to employee’s e-mail addresses from the payroll department.

The most important project for holding in 2020 was the transition to electronic personnel record keeping. The company conducted an information campaign in order to collect data and submit reports to the corresponding accounts of the Pension Fund of Russia. In 2021, the company will become a member of the Direct Payments Project and will make payments for mandatory social security (sick leave) directly to the territorial agencies of the Social Security Fund of the Russian Federation by using an electronic certi cate of work disability.

The company has implemented the OLIMPOKS training and monitoring system – the best program for online training and certi cation in the eld of industrial production. Together with the Center for Training and Retraining of Oil and Gas Specialists of the Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), the company launched a joint project to assess the technical competencies of employees. The project provides the advancement of individual development and training plans through the ready-made modules of electronic educational courses at TPU and the Scottish University of Heriot-Watt.

It is also necessary to highlight the social aspect of digitalization. The introduction of digital technologies in all areas of business will increase labor productivity, reduce production costs and reduce product delivery time to the end consumer. However, it can lead to labor market upheavals, an increase in the level of unemployment and, as a result, to higher social tension.

The digitalization of labor relations is undoubtedly necessary, but it should be controlled at all stages and at all levels of implementation.

Iwao Ohashi,

Adviser for Japan and Asia Pasifi c countries Association of Industrial Parks of Russia, expert member of the Subcommittee on Transport and Logistics of the Committee on International Cooperation of the RSPP

International transport corridor The Financial-Business Association of Euro-Asian Cooperation (FBA ЕАС) annually organizes Moscow International Financial and Economic Forum. In November 2020, when the VII Forum was held, I was invited to its third panel – ”Eurasian transport-economic corridors: construction of highways and crossroads”. Experts from Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Italy, China and Japan shared their views at the session. The discussion highlighted a signifi cant and interesting opportunity for the strategic development of Russia’s regions in the future.

During the discussion, I focused on the following points. First, in the development of the Eurasian transport corridor linking Western Europe and Western China, the importance of ensuring ”connectivity” was emphasized. The real development of the international transport corridor goes beyond the mere development of the ”rigid” infrastructure, such as railways and roads. It is equally important to ensure the operation of a soft infrastructure, such as a mechanism for the harmonization of technical standards concerning the organization and management of goods transport, between linked markets along the corridor, as well as Customs registration and digital systems based on a common concept.

Russia occupies a large space connecting Europe with Central and East Asia and the Middle East. Russia’s develop-