On June 12 in Helsinki, the Trade Representation of Russia in Finland hosted the seminar “Russian-Finnish Economic Relations: the current state and prospects”.

The seminar convened over 50 representatives of business, academic community and state authorities of the two countries.

The moderator of the seminar was Ilkka Salonen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the East Office of Finnish Industries. The panel discussion featured the Chief Executive Officer of the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce Jaana Rekolainen and renowned Finnish expert on Russian economics Seppo Remes.

The Rector of Petrozavodsk State University Anatoly Voronin presented a report “Petrozavodsk University – the driver of the new economics of the Republic of Karelia”. The Finnish audience learned about the achievements of the university in high technologies over recent years. The report covered the development of microelectronics on the premises of PetrSU, international connections in information technologies, achievements in high biomedical and “clean” technologies, aquaculture, etc.

Another report was presented by Valery Shlyamin, Advisor to the Rector, Academic Director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU: “40 years of Russian-Finnish economic projects”. Valery Shlyamin told about the activities of the INES, the importance of joint humanities projects complementing the efforts of economists.

The program of the visit to Finland featured one more event: visit to the Embassy of Russia in Finland. There the representatives of the university told about the preparation for the celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the Republic of Karelia and the 80-year anniversary of Petrozavodsk State University.

“It is important to involve more and more people in international projects to establish connections. This will help dispel myths and stereotypes about each other,” believes Valery Shlyamin.