On March 10 through 12, 2010, the representative delegation of Latvia headed by Nil Ushakov, Chairman of Riga City Council, sojourned in St.Petersburg on a working visit.
The purpose of the visit was the development of business and cultural ties between St.Petersburg and Riga.
During the visit, the meetings with the V.I. Matvienko, Governor of St.Petersburg, and V.A. Tulpanov, Chairman of St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, took place, and the sides exchanged their opinions on cooperation between St.Petersburg and Riga. It was observed that in terms of trade turnover, Latvia was ranked first among the St.Petersburg partners in Baltic countries.
The members of the delegation visited a number of city organizations, including SUE “Lensvet”, St.Petersburg State University “St.Petersburg House of Nationalities”, City-wide Children and Youth Center for Artistic Gymnastics “Pearl”, Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet etc.
Special attention was paid to visiting the territory of the project “Marine Facade”, where the delegation examined the course of its implementation. According to N. Ushakov, the departments responsible for tourism development in Riga are going to consider the routes for cruise ships to/from St.Petersburg with a stopover in Riga, “to be able in some cases, on the way to you or back, call in Riga, thus increasing the cost of the package for cruise holdings, taking advantage of those investments and the success that you show when developing the Marine Facade”, he said.
Within the confines of the visit, the seminar “St.Petersburg and Riga: Partnership and Cooperation” was held at the Consulate General of the Republic of Latvia in St.Petersburg on March 12, which was attended by over 60 entrepreneurs from Riga and St.Petersburg. During the seminar, a presentation of “Riga’s Brand ” was given, contact exchange “Tourism” was working, and individual meetings and negotiations on cooperation took place.
In numerous interviews to St.Petersburg media, Ushakov mentioned that the multifaceted cooperation with Russia would be “the key to abandoning the recession”.
Source: Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg