Organizers: the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg and the City Council of Turku with support of the Trade Representation Office of the Russian Federation in Finland.
Organizers: the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg and the City Council of Turku with support of the Trade Representation Office of the Russian Federation in Finland.
The events in the Parneriat program were held together with the “Rubicon Forum”, already established in Finland. The plenary meeting devoted to the present and the future of the economic cooperation between Russia and Finland featured speeches by the Mayor of Turku Aleksi Randell, the Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Sergey Movchan, the Permanent Secretary of Employment and the Economy of Finland Jari Gustafsson, and the Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in Finland Valery Shlyamin. In his opening speech the Vice Governor of St. Petersburg S.N. Movchan remarked that “the Finnish partners are not planning to leave St. Petersburg market. They are adapting to the economic situation brought about by the current tide of life. Economic ties will be developed despite any political challenges”. The business program consisted of a number of round table meeting on the most promising areas of bilateral cooperation. A separate session was devoted to the certification of technical products along with the protection of intellectual property during the implementation of joint innovative and technological projects. In his speech on the topic, Valery Shlyamin said: “For Russia and Finland participation in joint technological and innovative projects and the use of the best commercialization procedures of inventions will in the future enable to increase the competitive ability of high-tech products and services on the world market”. Alla Manilova, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, participated in the session on Finnish-Russian cooperation in the area of tourism. In addition, the participants enjoyed a business contact exchange, a separate presentation area, a consulting business center, an exhibition as well as visit to enterprises and organizations of Turku specializing in the following areas: bioeconomics, medical technologies, metal-working manufacturing industry and shipbuilding. Over 250 companies from Russia, Finland, Latvia, the Netherlands and China participated in the event. The list of regional Russian participants featured representatives of the Leningrad Region, the Moscow, Pskov, Vologda, Oryol, Saratov Regions, and the Republic of Bashkortostan.