A bilateral forum “St. Petersburg – Thessaloniki: 10 Years of Partnership” was devoted to the festive date of establishing the twinning of cities, and held in Thessaloniki on April 24 through 27, 2012. The forum was organized by the Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg and the Department of External Relations of Thessaloniki.
A bilateral forum “St. Petersburg – Thessaloniki: 10 Years of Partnership” was devoted to the festive date of establishing the twinning of cities, and held in Thessaloniki on April 24 through 27, 2012. The forum was organized by the Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg and the Department of External Relations of Thessaloniki.
In Thessaloniki, St.Petersburg was represented by a delegation that included the sectoral committees at the city adinistration, in addition to the representatives of St.Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, business circles, institutions of higher education (State Paedagogical University named after A.Herzen, St.Petersburg State University of Road Communications, Institute of International Business and Communications at the Baltic State Technical University “Voenmekh” named after D.Ustinov), cultural institutions (the State Russian Museum, State Museum of the History of Religion), non-governmental organizations (“Energy of the Nation”, “Doctors for Children”). The delegation was headed by T.V.Meshcheryakov, Member of the St.Petersburg Government, the head of the Frunzenskiy District administration.
As part of the forum, the “round tables” were run on the development of cooperation in economy and tourism (in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Thessaloniki, with the participation of about 30 companies from Thessaloniki and Northern Greece), urban and social development, culture, science, education, youth policy and sports (at the City Hall of Thessaloniki). From Thessaloniki side, the forum was attended by the leaders of the Chamber of Commerce of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki administration members and heads of dedicated departments of the City Hall, representatives of leading universities (Aristotle University, the Greek International University, University of Macedonia), directors of cultural institutions (the State Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Russian Center of Thessaloniki, Center for Cultural Heritage of Cyril and Methodius, the Center of Mount Athos).
Forum participants warmly welcomed the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris. In the course of “round tables” the presentation of economic and tourism potential of St.Petersburg and Thessaloniki were made, as well as the bilateral meetings of St.Petersburg and Greek companies; the sides exchanged their opinions on promising areas of cooperation, including: the establishment a Russian-Greek trade center in St.Petersburg, sharing the experience on effective projects in the field of urban planning and programs for socially vulnerable groups of citizens, organization of children’s activities, participation in international cultural festivals of the cities, art exhibitions exchange, the introduction of adaptive sports programs, using the UNESCO channels for high schools cooperation. The representatives of the University of Macedonia expressed their interest in co-operation with the universities of St.Petersburg in the Russian language teaching in Thessaloniki.
St.Petersburg and Thessaloniki also agreed on joint participation in the events of 2013 to honour famous Thessaloniki-born Cyril and Methodius, the cross-year Russia–Greece in 2014, the project “Thessaloniki – the European Youth Capital 2014”.
During this visit to Thessaloniki, T.V.Meshcheryakov, Head of the Delegation of St.Petersburg, was received by Rd Anthemius, Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, on April 24, 2012.
Besides, on April 26, 2012, an exhibition from the collection of the Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” was opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, within the confines of the forum. The exhibition from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki will be shown in St.Petersburg in the second half of 2012 in response.
Within the framework of the foru, the restaurant at the St.Petersburg hotel “Ambassador”organized in Thessaloniki a master class on Russian cuisine.