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The Memorandum of Partnership between the Government of Karelia and Västerbotten County Administrative Board concerning establishing and development of eco-efficient communities is signed

The Memorandum of Partnership between the Government of the Republic of Karelia and Västerbotten County Administrative Board (the Kingdom of Sweden) concerning establishing and development of eco-efficient communities is to be signed in the Ministry of Economic Development on November, 23. On the part of Karelia the document was signed by Valentin Luntsevich, Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia, senior adviser for Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) Henrik Forsström signed it on behalf of Sweden.

Valentin Luntsevich has expressed gratitude to the Swedish party for their initiative and support in promotion of modern projects concerning introduction and propagation of ecological and energy-saving technologies in Karelia. "Signing of the Memorandum of Partnership on the eve of the international forum Investments in the Future to be held in the republic completely corresponds to the idea of this important action for Karelia," – Deputy Head of the Republic said.

In September, 2010 Västerbotten County Administrative Board has suggested to continue teamwork on modernization and improvement of municipal infrastructure of Karelia. Sweden, as a part of the Baltic region, has initiated various ecological projects and aspires to combine efforts of neighbouring countries of the region in their implementation as effectively as possible. The parties have already put into effect a number of activities in the sphere of central heating, power saving, refuse and sewage collection - in the period from April to August of 2011 work in Karelia was focused on the project of Energy Plan for the City of Kostomuksha. Financial and technical support of projects is rendered by Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), other sources of financing are also involved.

During the meeting in the Ministry of Economic Development representatives of Nordic Environment Finance Corporation have told about results of the energy plan project. In particular, executive director of SWECO Systems, Kjell Blombäck has noted that on results of the research the loss of energy on objects of infrastructure in Kostomuksha exceed losses on similar objects in the north of Sweden four times. The Swedes suggest Karelia to use their energy-saving technologies, models of recycling of consumed heat, the system of rational planning according to devices of strict assessment of energy consumption.

According to the signed Memorandum, Energy Plan for the City of Kostomuksha is considered a pilot project built so that it is was possible to be used in other regions of Karelia as the main energy plan indicating the activities necessary for power-saving and power-efficiency of regions of the republic.

Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) intends to continue financing of small projects within the framework of Eco-Efficient Communities project relying on results of previous researches. It is supposed that expert work in projects-to be will be performed by companies from Västerbotten and engaging Swedish companies working in the sphere of municipal infrastructure. In the future NEFCO will also make efforts to use other opportunities to finance corresponding investment projects.

Russian-Swedish project “Women’s entrepreneurship from West to East” has been started in Umeå

In November, 17-18^th, the first pre-project meeting within the framework of the project of SKBIC “Women’s entrepreneurship from West to East”, planned to function during 2011-2013, took place in Umeå. Project’s purposes are development of women’s entrepreneurship, stimulation of women to organize and promote own business and equal in rights participation of women in economic life. Group of Russian participants, which consisted of representatives from Association of women-entrepreneurs of the Republic of Karelia, Administration of Petrozavodsk, Karelian Centre on gender researches and Karelian Regional Movement of women, Women’s organization Yaroslavna in Kostomuksha, Karelian Women’s NGO Amal and tourist agency Druzhba, visited such organizations which give support to entrepreneurs as BIC Factory, Leia Accelerator and Coompanion-Kooperativ utveckling.

During the meeting with the representatives from BIC Factory main directions of the activities of the Centre were presented to the group. BIC Factory is a business incubator for entrepreneurs up to 40 years old where they have opportunities to use premises, equipment and so on. This business incubator which consists of 17 companies (21 persons – 10 of them are women), gives entrepreneurs opportunities to conduct own business, exchange knowledge and business ideas, use common network of contacts and attract new clients. Moreover, entrepreneurs have opportunities to get consultations about economic activity within own company, work with documentation and training courses. BIC Factory promotes young entrepreneurs to the market.

 Representatives from Leia Accelerator presented information on main activities and companies which work within the project Leia Accelerator. Leia Accelerator helps entrepreneurs after 40 years old, having business more than 3 years, to organize own business by putting  premises and necessary equipment at entrepreneurs’ disposal, holding training courses and giving consultations on different issues and to develop and promote own business. Leia Accelerator includes 24 companies from different spheres: journalism, design, healthcare, translation activity, publishing house, migration issues and others. 50% of all companies in Leia Accelerator belong to women. Leia Accelerator is a project financed by EU Program, Umeå Commune and Region of Västerbotten. Representatives from Leia Accelerator will be main experts in the project “Women’s entrepreneurship from West to East”.

Also the group of participants had a meeting with the representatives from “Coompanion-Kooperativ utveckling”. Advisor of “Coompanion-Kooperativ utveckling”, aimed at giving support to entrepreneurs in organization and development of cooperative companies, Doris Brändström  told about main activities of the company and basic principles of cooperative companies in general. “Coompanion-Kooperativ utveckling” conducts its activity in different spheres – healthcare, education, cultural aspects, social issues (childcare, care for elderly people and others) – and helps private persons and groups of people to organize and develop own business in these spheres.

Project participants have got an opportunity to mark out and compare positive moments in structures and activities of organizations and companies aimed at development of women’s entrepreneurship in order to form a plan of future activities within the project and create a project expert group.

Energy plan for the city of Kostomuksha

On August, 16th a final seminar, which concluded the process of preparation of the Energy plan, took place in Kostomuksha. The project of elaboration of the plan was financed by NEFCO, expertise work carried out by the company SWECO Systems (Mr. Kjell Blombäck), general administration run by AVEC Consulting (Mr. Erik Sollen).

Presenting the Energy plan, Mr. Blombäck used the examples of some Kostomuksha buildings to demonstrate which changes are required in order to introduce energy-saving technologies.  

Parties also discussed further steps in the field of upgrading communal infrastructure. In particular, sewage treatment and sludge utilization have been defined among priority areas by "Eco-efficient communities" program.  City management of Kostomuksha acknowledged its interest in continuing cooperation in this field. According to Mr. Sollen, NEFCO has a preliminary intention to support another project for sludge utilization for the city of Kostomuksha. 


During their stay in Kostomuksha, Swedish partners also held a meeting with representatives of “Severstal” JSC, discussing possibilities for a joint project, which would help to find solution to the problem of utilizing the heat surplus. Extra heat is a by-product of the production process and may be used for the needs of the city. As this project implies significant investments, further consultations are required.

In the course of the meetings, director of SKBIC Tatiana Klekacheva suggested to organize an information seminar for representatives of communal sphere of Karelia, disseminating the results of the work, carried out in Kostomuksha. Such seminar can be scheduled for early 2012.  

Official delegation from Västerbotten visits Karelia

On June 9 a delegation of Västerbotten county, Sweden, led by Mrs.Chris Heister, Governor of Västerbotten, arrived in Karelia on a two-day visit. The same day Head of Karelia Andrei Nelidov held a meeting with the guests from Sweden. 

Members of Swedish delegation: Mrs. Brigitta Heier, vice-governor, 

Mrs. Chris Heister, Governor, Mr. Mats-Rune Bergström, 

director of County Administrative Board, Oksana Abramova, interpreter

Parties discussed issues of supporting and developing cooperation in various spheres, amongst which are tourism, highlighted by Mr. Nelidov as an area of primary interest, public health, energy-efficiency and use of renewable energy sources. 

        Governor of Västerbotten at the training
        simulator for harvester operator, IT Park of PetrSU

On results of the meeting in the Government of the republic the parties have signed a joint document stating the basic directions for activity in 2011-2013 within the framework of cooperation between Karelia and Västerbotten county. According to the protocol, Valentin Luntsevich, Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia and Minister of Economic Development, and Ms.Birgitta Heijer, Deputy Governor of Västerbotten, have also signed the document. There has been also signed the agreement between the Ministry of Economic Developmentof Karelia and Västerbotten county government on continuation of the project of activity of the Swedish-Karelian information business center.

Program of the delegation's visit also included  acquaintance with the IT Part of Petrozavodsk State University, visit to the Business Incubator, participation in the joint seminar "Västerbotten-Karelia: cooperation between the regions and municipalities". 

Discussions at the seminar, apart from presenting the basic achievements and challenges of bilateral cooperation, also focused on implementation of the joint project "Eco-efficient communities", which is being realized between the two regions since 2010. 

Eco-efficient communities: a conference in Stockholm

Sergey Shtrakhov,  Minister of
nature management
and ecology of Karelia

On February, 8th, in the framework of Västerbotten days in Grand Hotel, Stockholm, a conference was organized, aimed at bringing together representatives of Karelian municipalities with their colleagues from Västerbotten, with representatives of Västerbotten Länsstyrelsen, NEFCO, Forest research Institute, companies Umeva, SWECO, etc.

Representatives of Karelian municipalities
at a round table with Västerbotten experts

The conference was opened by the Governor of Västerbotten, Mrs Chris Heister. Format of the conference implied plenary session and a common discussion, devoted to the situation in communal sector in North-West Russia. After the conference, representatives of Karelian municipalities had an opportunity to continue the discussion with experts from Västerbotten regarding specific activities, which could be carried out in the participating municipalities.

Among the next steps of the project is organization of a study visit for workers of communal sector from Karelia to Västerbotten.

Project "Eco-efficient communities" continues in Karelia

During January, 23-28 a delegation of experts from Västerbotten visited Karelia in the framework of the project "Eco-efficient communities", which got started in autumn 2010.
Experts visited 5 Karelian municipalities, which were selected for participation in the project on the basis of   twinning relations with cities in Västerbotten: Petrozavodsk (sister-city Umeå), Kostomuksha (sister-city Rebertsfors), Medvezhyegorsk (sister-city Malö), Olonets (sister-city Lycksele), Pryazha (sister-ctiy Vindeln).

Visit to the sewage treatment facilities, Kostomuksha

At the meetings with the leadership and specialists of communal infrastructure of the municipalities, issues of energy efficientcy, waste and waste water management have been discussed. The task of the experts' visit was to reveal the most urgent problems, which municipalities are facing in the above-mentioned fields and come to the common conclusion as to which problems may be solved in the framework of the "Eco-efficient communities" project.

Discussions, which took place in the municipalities, have demonstrated the common need in competence upgrade and experience exchange in the field of energy-efficiency. Starting January 1st 2010 a new law on energy efficiency came into force in Russia, obliging municipalities to undertake measures, aimed at decreasing  consumption of energy and resources by 15% over a 5-year period of time.
Another sensitive issue for the municipalities is waste-water treatment and utilization of sewage sludge.

Meeting with leadership of Medvezhyegorsk city

It has been agreed to continue the discussion of the more specific activities within the project during the conference "Eco-efficient communities", which is planned for February, 8th in Stockholm, Sweden.