On November 17 through 20, 2009, the delegation of St. Petersburg, headed by A.I.Sergeev, Vice-Governor, visited Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
On November 17 through 20, 2009, the delegation of St. Petersburg, headed by A.I. Sergeev, Vice-Governor, visited Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
The visit was timed to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of partnership between the two cities, which began since the signing of the Protocol on friendship and cooperation between Leningrad and Rotterdam in 1984.
During the visit, A.I. Sergeev, Vice-Governor of St.Petersburg, had the negotiations with Mr. Ahmed Abutaleb, Mayor of Rotterdam, and Kurt Berman, Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Rotterdam. The meetings were held with K.G. Gevorgyan, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia in the Kingdom of the Netherlands; with Mr. Diriks, Director of the Department at the Ministry of Transport of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and with Mr. Veldkamp, Director of the Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Also, A.I. Sergeev visited the museum and exhibition complex «The Hermitage at Amstel», which was inaugurated in June this year, in the presence of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and D.A. Medvedev, President of Russia.
On November 18, 2009, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Rotterdam hosted an international conference «25 Years of St.Petersburg and Rotterdam Partnership: Results and Prospects», with the participation of representatives of Dutch and Russian administrations and the business communiies. After the conference, the members of St.Petersburg delegation visitied the Council for Arts of Rotterdam. At the building of the Chamber, the bilateral seminars were held, on urban planning, tolerance, and ethnic diversity.
On November 19, 2009, the delegation visited the port of Rotterdam; afterwards, a seminar on transport-transit policy of the cities was held in the building of the Port Administration. The members of the delegation also visited the social facilities associated with the adaptation of migrants and the education, as well as the Department for Urban Planning, and made an inspection tour over the facilities of modern urban planning in Rotterdam.
Source: Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg