Turku Days in Saint Petersburg

Turku Days will be organized in Saint Petersburg 20–22 October 2015. Business co-operation will be on display in a big way this year. The Turku Region Development Centre will organize a business-to-business event offering company visits, a networking buffet and theme groups from various fields for the registered companies. The event is organized in co-operation with the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce and their Finnish Business in St. Petersburg event, in which around 400 Finns and Russians are expected to participate.

Turku and St. Petersburg are well-known cities of culture, which is visible also in the co-operation between the cities. This time the cultural programme will emphasize music. The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra will visit the Mariinsky Theatre, and the Finland-Russia Society will bring two fresh artists to the jazz clubs: Anniina Auf and Jargoslavia.

The residents of St. Petersburg will also get a topical overview on Finnish politics at the House of Finland, as Markku Jokisipilä, Director of the Centre for Parliamentary Studies at the University of Turku, will be giving a public lecture. The university-level professionalism in Turku will also be highlighted at the Emerging Trends in Drug Development symposium, which is a continuation to the Finnish-Russian university co-operation in the field of drug development that started in spring 2015.

Also a delegation of the Turku City Council led by the City Council Chair, Seppo Lehtinen, will be visiting St. Petersburg during the Turku Days. The delegation will get to see how the legislative assembly (Duma) works in St. Petersburg.

The co-operation between Turku and St. Petersburg started in 1953 and is celebrated every other year in Turku and St. Petersburg.

Among the organizers of Turku Days there are numerous players that co-operate with Russia.

The joint strategy of the cities

There is also a future outlook for the twin city co-operation, and the cities’ strategy for 2016–2018 will be discussed at the Turku Days in St. Petersburg. Turku and St. Petersburg have been twin cities already for over 60 years. The co-operation has been close especially in the fields of education, culture, business economics and science.

Additional information: Manager of International Affairs Mika Akkanen

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The programme of Turku Days in St. Petersburg

Oct 9: Celebration concert of Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre
conductor: Leif Segerstam, soloist: Camilla Nylund

Oct 20: II Russian-Finnish Symposium “Emerging Trends in Drug Development”
St. Petersburg State Chemical-Pharmaceutical Academy
partners in co-operation: University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University, and St. Petersburg State Chemical-Pharmaceutical Academy

Oct 20: Anniina Auf and Jargoslavia, JCF Jazz Club
partners in co-operation: Turku section of the Finland-Russia Society in Finland and the Norden Association

Oct 21-22: Business-to-Business event, Crowne Plaza Airport
information, co-operation partners, networking, and new business possibilities
Finnish Business in St. Petersburg event on 21 October, 14:00–18:30
partners in co-operation: Turku Region Development Centre and Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce

Oct 21: “The Finnish Parliament after the Election of 2015” seminar, The House of Finland in St. Petersburg
speaker: Markku Jokisipilä, Director of the Centre for Parliamentary Studies at the University of Turku

The results of the April 2015 parliamentary election in Finland were historical in many ways: the Finns Party established its place as a large party, the Social Democratic Party, on the other hand, got the lowest support rate during its existence. Juha Sipilä from the Centre Party became the leader of the new government, and EU-critical Timo Soini became the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The government is faced with the great challenge of raising Finland from a historically long recession. The situation is unpredictable because of the acute refugee crisis, which is especially hard for the immigration-critical Finns Party to digest.

Oct 21: Anniina Auf and Jargoslavia, Norden Association
partners in co-operation: Turku section of the Finland-Russia Society in Finland and the Norden Association

Oct 22: A Healthy School in Intercultural Interaction, School 204

Oct 22: The co-operation seminar between the Turku University of Applied Sciences and the St. Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation

Oct 22: “Dialogue between Cultures from the Banks of Neva to Aura” seminar, St. Petersburg Association for International Cooperation (60, Liteiny prospect)
organizer: Baltic Region ry