The City of Turku Administration is visiting St. Petersburg on 4–5 April 2018. Mayor Minna Arve and the City of St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko are meeting in order to update the implementation stage of the cities’ cooperation protocols. City Council Chair Elina Rantanen and City Board Chair Lauri Kattelus are joining the visit.

On the meeting agenda, digital services are an essential. Additionally, Mayor Arve will be presenting the Turku Centre 2050 vision and our city development know-how to the City of St. Petersburg.

– The shared history of Turku and St. Petersburg as twin cities goes back to over 60 years ago. This creates many chances for cooperation between different divisions and comparison between good practices and operating models. At the moment, the cities aim for cooperation particularly around concrete matters related to services for the citizens, such as public transport solutions and digital services, describes Mayor of Turku Minna Arve.

 

Mayor Arve and Governor Poltavchenko met for the first time officially in St. Petersburg on 4 April 2018. On the agenda were especially experiences of developing public transport systems and future cultural collaboration projects.

St. Petersburg public transport solutions to provide insight also for Turku

On the second visit day, Rantanen, Kattelus, and Arve will be meeting the legislative meeting of St. Petersburg, the highest decision-making body of the city. The themes of the meeting include public transport solutions. Turku is currently making significant decisions concerning this subject, and the purpose of the visit is to draw perspectives from how St. Petersburg has been solving public transport issues.

Also, the Turku Administration will be introduced to the plant and facilities of the internationally operating Russian biotechnology company BIOCAD. Last year, BIOCAD made a significant decision to locate a production facility of medicines targeted to the European market in Turku. The company is also going to closely collaborate with research teams from Turku.