Representatives of the cities attended a meeting on October 1 during the traditional Day of Kotka in St. Petersburg.
Kotka and St. Petersburg are continuing to reinforce cooperation. Representatives of the cities attended a meeting on October 1 during the traditional Day of Kotka in St. Petersburg.
The highlight of the day was the seminar “Investments into Business in Finland” held as part of the “Rubikon” Project. In the course of the event, attended by over 50 participants, representatives of Russian companies elaborated on business opportunities and business models in Finland. The “Rubikon” Project, which originated in the city of Kotka, became internationally renowned for its unique service model offered to Russian investing companies and is currently expanding to other regions of Finland in cooperation with “Invest in Finland” Agency.
A workshop on distance learning was organized and held in the House of Finland by the University of Applied Sciences KYAMK of the Kymenlaakson region of Finland. The event featured 3 Finnish and 3 St. Petersburg universities. Representatives of the universities exchanged experience and discussed further cooperation and joint projects.
The KYAMK University held a working meeting within the framework of the KymRIS Project which aims at facilitating relationships between St. Petersburg and the EU and in which KYAMK poses as a bridge for cooperation in the sphere of higher education. The focal points are the activities related to entrepreneurship and start-ups as well as wide-scale international cooperation.
A new agreement on cooperation was in its turn signed on October 1 by Etelä-Kymenlaakso Vocational College (Ekami) and the St. Petersburg Technical College of Management and Commerce. Furthermore Ekami is also planning to sign agreements with the Maritime Training Center of the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, the St. Petersburg College of Art Conservation and the St. Petersburg Polytechnic College. In addition specialists from Ekami are meeting the same day with their colleagues from other educational establishments, for example the Finnish School in St. Petersburg along with representatives of the Ingermanland Union of Finns from St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk.
Merikotka - Kotka Maritime Research Centre – is organizing a seminar devoted to the development of small ports. The aim is to introduce a new project “30MILES” as well as to begin the preparation of a joint Russian-Finnish project in the area of small shipping traffic.
“The interest to small shipping traffic in the Gulf of Finland is growing from year to year. The Project “30MILES” which aims at increasing safety and development of services at small ports located in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland is to be launched in Finland in the near future. Moreover another large-scale joint Russia-Finland project is necessary to create in this water area a good network of small ports which meet the requirements of the bordering countries. At the moment it is possible to obtain funding for such a project, since preparation of the Program “South-Eastern Finland – Russia. Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2014-2016” has entered its final phase” – elaborates Anna Kiiski, Head of the Merikotka Research Center.
Representatives of Kotka also related to their partners from St. Petersburg the progress of the project of reconstructing the Old Port and discussed the Agreement on Cooperation between the administrations of our cities to be signed on October 7. The Agreement covers the period 2016-2018 and stipulates the joint actions to be taken in the sphere of higher and vocational education, tourism, support of internationalization of small and medium high technology enterprises as well as cooperation in the area of culture and innovation policy.
For more information contact:
Terhi Lindholm, Kotka, Development Director +358 40 670 8222
Sergey Troshkov, Cursor Oy, Program manager + 358 40 190 25 61