Northwest Russia: Facts and Events Newsletter by the Stockholm Region Office in St. Petersburg Issue 108, 2008, week 46

Social Work with Juvenile Delinquents: Closing Conference

On 20 November the closing conference in the frames of “Social Work with Juvenile Delinquents” project took place in St. Petersburg, attracting over 120 participants. The project was implemented in St. Petersburg in 2000-2008 under Sida’s funding. The goal of the project was to develop methods for crime prevention, social adaptation and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents and apply them in the work of St. Petersburg social bodies.

The main partners in the project were the Stockholm University and the St. Petersburg Committee on Labour and Social Security. The co-partners were the St. Petersburg Commission for Juvenile Cases of the Committee for Justice, Legal Order, and Safety; the St. Petersburg Committee on Youth Policy and Social Organizations Interaction; Main Headquarters of the Federal Penitentiary Service in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region (GUFSIN); the City Court of St. Petersburg; and the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region (GUVD). The project was coordinated by the Stockholm region Office in St. Petersburg. Source: Stockholm region Office in St. Petersburg, stockholm.office@stockholm.spb.ru

Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs: Visit to Nordic Countries

Representatives from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Russia from the Northwest Federal District will be visiting Nordic Countries within the partnership project «International Cooperation in Northern Europe, 2008» within the framework of Nordic Council of Ministers’ exchange programme. The overall objective of the exchange programme is to strengthen cooperation in the Nordic region and neighbouring countries by developing competencies and contacts between the Nordic countries and Northwest Russia. In two groups there will be 22 participants coming on exchange trips to Finland and Norway in November and Sweden, Iceland and Denmark in December. The aim of the visits is to familiarize Russian participants with Nordic institutions and organisations involved in international cooperation with specific emphasis on partnership with Northwest Russia. The Information office of the Nordic Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg is coordinating the study trip of representatives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from the Northwest Russia to five Nordic countries.

The one group already visited Finland and Norway on 16-20 November. In Helsinki meetings were organised in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Migration Department, Nordic Investment Bank, Institute for Russia and Eastern Europe, National Public Health Institute, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation, Nordic Project Fund, Nordic Institute in Finland, Helsinki Commission, company Gaia that presents socially responsible and sustainable business issues, and others. In Oslo Russian officials visited the Norwegian Parliament, Institute of International Affairs, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, Ministry of Health and Care Services, Nordic Research Institution NordForsk, Nordic Centres of Innovation NICe, Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce and others.

On 7-9 December the second group of representatives from the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs will visit Sweden.

Contact person: Elena Golubeva, Acting Director, Nordic Council of Ministers' Information Office in St. Petersburg; e-mail: eg@norden.ru; web: www.norden.ru

“Economic Diplomacy and Support for Innovation Capabilities in the Northwest Federal District of the Russian Federation”

On 27-28 November international conference “Economic Diplomacy and Support for Innovation Capabilities in the Northwest Federal District of the Russian Federation” took place in St. Petersburg. The Stockholm region Office in St. Petersburg was invited to make a presentation on cooperation between Stockholm-Mдlar region and Northwest Russia. The programme of the conference also included the meeting with representatives of Diplomatic Corps of St. Petersburg and a presentation by Jose Aravena Navarrete, General Manager European Community-Chile Business Centre.

The conference main objectives were to reveal trends and methods of interaction in the area of economic diplomacy and support of regional innovation capabilities, formulate partnership strategies between universities, regions, and businesses in the field of innovation and knowledge transfer on a global level. The conference in particular focused on comparative analysis of the efficiency of Russian new regional policy and economic diplomacy with respect to European regional policy and diplomacy.

The conference was organized by Intellectual Resources of Integration the Russia-Belarus Round-table, Education and Sciences Committee of the North-West Association, and Smolny University of the Russian Academy of Education (RAE) with the support from the St. Petersburg Committee on Science and Higher Education.

Contact person: Sergey Borodulin, Smolny University of the Russian Academy of Education (RAE), orgkomitet1@yandex.ru; webpage: http://www.econdiplomacy.org/en

Baltic Meetings Project: Finland – St. Petersburg Cooperation

The Baltic Meetings in the Ambassador Hotel annual event, opening up the new prospects in cooperation between St. Petersburg and the countries of the Baltic Sea Region, took place on 19 November. Two years ago a large-scale project named «The Baltic Meetings in the Ambassador Hotel» was started on the initiative of the hotel and with the support of the St. Petersburg Committee for External Relations.

The participants of the «Meetings» are representatives of political, business, scientific and cultural spheres of St. Petersburg and countries of the Baltic Sea Region. The project is aimed at the developing of business contacts and cooperation in business and humanitarian spheres in the Baltic Sea Region. This year it was the Third Baltic Meetings event conducted in cooperation with Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg Committee for External Relations.

This year Finland presented its regions and their cooperation opportunities, as they could be interesting for St. Petersburg. There was also a «round table» devoted to cooperation between Finland and St. Petersburg.

Contact person: Olga Vankicheva, Ambassador Hotel, e-mail: Vankicheva@ambassador-hotel.ru

STOCKHOLM REGION OFFICE in ST PETERSBURG

Visiting address: Nevsky 1, St. Petersburg

Postal address: BOX 1005, 190000, St. Petersburg

tel.: +7-812-314 68 18, fax: +7-812-314 68 53

e-mail: stockholm.office@stockholm.spb.ru