On May 24-28, 2011, Days of Turku were run in in St.Petersburg. The program of events was attended by a delegation of Turku City Hall, headed by A. Randell, Mayor, and S. Lehtinen, Chairman of the City Council. The main focus of the Days was the strengthening of cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
On May 24-28, 2011, Days of Turku were run in in St.Petersburg. The program of events was attended by a delegation of Turku City Hall, headed by A. Randell, Mayor, and S. Lehtinen, Chairman of the City Council. The main focus of the Days was the strengthening of cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
The Program of the Days began with the workshop concerning the draft project on hazardous waste treatment by the Committee on Natural Resources, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety and the Department of Environment Protection and Urban Planning of the City of Turku. Experts in urban ecology examined the activities of SUE “Ecostroy” and SUE “Mineral”. Finnish ecologists were presented a project of St.Petersburg “Ecomobile”.
On May 25, the representatives of public organizations of the two cities attended a seminar “Finnish Architects in St.Petersburg”. T. Keinänen, expert of Archival Department at the Museum of Architecture in Finland, lectured and guided a bus tour around historical sites of St.Petersburg, related to the activities of Finnish architects. On grounds of the Finnish School in St.Petersburg (Finland House), a meeting of Finnish writers and St.Petersburg pupils studying Finnish was held.
On May 26, Forum for Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region was opened at the Hotel Ambassador. The Forum, which was aimed to bring together the efforts of the representatives of Baltic countries in addressing current problems of environmental safety, development of the innovation process, improving the labour market, and vocational training, was a continuation of “Turku Initiatives” (in September 2010, the first consultations were held in Turku), aimed at integrating the efforts of actors in the region in addressing pressing problems. Later, on May 27, the major parties met at the round table to summarize the Forum and define the subjects for practical cooperation. Turku Initiatives were supported by the European Union, as well as representatives of European municipalities and public organizations. The event was attended by D. Hanaire, Director for Regional Policy of the European Commission.
On May 26, women entrepreneurs of the two cities shared their experiences of doing business at a specialized seminar.
On May 26, opening ceremony of the project “Partner Cities of St.Petersburg at Ambassador” was run, timed to the Days of the first partner city of St.Petersburg. During the evening, the guests could get acquainted with the young creative teams from Turku, while the Chef of City Hall of Turku treated the participants with the dishes of traditional Finnish cuisine.
One focus of the evening was the ceremony of awarding M. Romppanen, Special Representative of the Mayor’s Office of Turku on the developing the cooperation with Russia, who has been responsible for the promotion of partnerships between St.Petersburg and Turku for over 36 years, with insignia “For the Merit to St.Petersburg”. In accordance with the decision of V.I. Matvienko, Governor of St.Petersburg, the insignia was awarded for significant contribution to the development of friendly relations and long-term fruitful activity aimed at the prosperity of St.Petersburg.
On May 25 through 27, continuing the tradition of exchanging “media press tours”, a group of journalists from Turku visited St.Petersburg and, among other, examined a draft project of the new airport in St.Petersburg.
Another component of the Days was the project titled “Turku – the European Cultural Capital of 2011”. On May 26, Turku writers S. Parkkola and E. Nuotio met at the House of Finland with young readers and ran literary master-classes. The project aims at creating the interest among the younger generation to its own literary work.
On May 27 and 28, on a Minor Stage of the Baltic House Theatre, a gala anniversary concert of Dance Theatre of Turku «ERI» was performed.
On May 27, S. Lehtinen, Chairman of the City Council of Turku, opened an exhibition of Youth Project “Turku–St.Petersburg–Köln”in Frunzenskiy District. Photos of students participating in the project adorned the windows of the regional library in the street, named to honour the Finnish partner city. After that, S. Lehtinen met with T. Meshcheryakov, Head of the Frunzenskiy District Administrations.
Also on May 27, S. Lehtinen met with V.S. Yagya, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg on International Relations. The sides discussed the possibility of signing a Cooperation Agreement.
On May 27, A. Randell, Mayor of Turku, took part in the events to mark the opening of a new passenger seaport in St.Petersburg.
On May 28, the delegation of the City Hall of Turku and the European Commission paid a familiarization visit to Southern Water Utility of Petersburg Vodokanal. Also, the members of official delegation took part in the events to mark the Day of the city.
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In 1953, the Finnish City of Turku became the first twin city of Leningrad. Since then, the partnership is developing in many areas and has a high degree of activity. Alternately, the Days of Turku in St.Petersburg and the Days of St.Petersburg to Turku are held biennially.
News Source: St.Petersburg Committee for External Relations