Anatoly Glushkov, the President of the NCCI, has participated in the annual Kirkenes Conference, that the seventh time took place in the Norwegian border town Kirkenes.  The issuess of the Northern regions development were discussed during the Conference. This year Kirkenes has gathered over 270 representatives of  political, social, scientific and business circles from Norway, Finland, Russia and Sweden.

Cecilia Hansen, Mayor of the municipality of Sør-Varanger, has opened the Conference.  Jan Tore Sanner,  Minister of Municipal governance and modernization of Norway, has greeted the participants and has underlined that the Conference is the central forum on the issues of Northern regions development, where the possibilities of the international cooperation across borders are usually being discussed.   

Grigory Straty, Deputy Governor of the Murmansk region, in his presentation “Murmansk region is the region of the sustainable development in Arctic” has noted that the Government of the Murmansk region “considers and uses availability of  common borders with Norway and Finland as a competitive advantage of the region, as well as proximity of borders with Sweden”. He has underlined that long history, joint projects in economy and social sphere, active political and cultural dialog  bind us with our neighbours.

Grigory Straty  told the participants of the Conference what measures are undertaken by the Government of the Murmansk region in order to improve business climate in the region, about mechanism to support the investors, and the major investment projects implemented in the region.

The topic of the investors support in Murmansk region aroused a great interest among the participants, especially such promising project "Arctic Harbor." Daniel Sheldam, Head of the Norwegian company "Hurtigruten", has underlined this direction of the mutual cooperation as the most attractive. In his speech he has emphasized that the possibility of extending the regular routes of Norwegian cruise liners to Murmansk can create an interesting tourist product which will give even more exclusivity to the Northern cruise tourism.

Nadezda Kumashova, International Department Manager 

On photo: A.Glushkov and Timo Rautajoki, President and CEO of Lapland Chamber of Commerce, Finland