IV conference “International Relations of Municipalities”
On October 29—30, in Petrozavodsk, the fourth conference “International Relations of Municipalities” will take place. City Administration and Karelian Research Center of Russian Academy of Science are the organizers. The first international conference of 2003 gathered about 140 participants in Petrozavodsk. The following conferences of 2006 and 2007 also demonstrated stable interest to the topic of international cooperation at municipal level.
At the IV conference it has been planned to focus on the following:
— international networking of municipalities;
— possibility of positioning Petrozavodsk as the center of expertise for other regions of Russia that strive for finding connections in Finland, and opportunities of Petrozavodsk as access point to the Russian market for Finnish companies;
— advantages of Petrozavodsk as research center, which specializes on knowledge on Finland;
— international relations as additional resource for the development of districts of Karelia (with involvement of Karelian branch of Northwest Academy of Public Service in Petrozavodsk)
— sister city movement as traditional format of people’s diplomacy.
The format of International conference implies reports on specific topics and work at round-table sessions. This year the Conference will include a session for discussing opportunities and future prospects of interactions between authorities, business and society in different countries. Active interactions with foreign colleagues in the framework of such international conferences helps find grounds for exchanging innovative ideas and gives opportunities to borrow optimal solutions from each other avoiding many mistakes at the same time.
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