Press-release of the Foreign Relations Ministry of Karelia

On the 15th of September, 1998 in Loukhi a seminar "Loukhi Sampo"took place. It was organized by the Union of the North Pokhyanmaa Communes (Finland) and the Administration of local power of the Loukhi region. The seminar was devoted to realisation of the project "Economical cooperation of the communes of North-East Finland and the Loukhi region of Karelia" financed within the framework of the E.U. Programme "Interreg". The communes of the North Pokhyanmaa province, representatives of educational institutions, firms and organizations of North-East Finland participate from the Finnish side. The goal of the project is to make fraternized relations more effective and to create new directions of cooperation, in particular, creation of business relations between business circles of Finland and Karelia, organization of common measures, possibility to use local raw materials, and also definition and marketing of the tourist objects and routes on the territory of the Loukhi region. The project started 15.02.1998, and the first results of the project were summed up during the seminar.

The Minister of Foreign Relations of Karelia V.A.Shlyamin made a report "Directions of economic development around "the White Road" on the seminar. The speaker believes,that "the White Road", beginning in Oulu and leading towards the White Sea, can be reborn as a distinctive boundary object or as a whole sum of projects. The old trade way can be an organic part of the Arkhangelsk corridor, completed with a highway railroad communications between the Bothnic Bay, Kostomuksha and the White Sea. Besides a transport corridor as itself, the Arkhangelsk corridor assumes involvement of the forest resources, mineral and raw materials into republican economics. It also opens unique possibilities for international tourism development in Karelia and North-East Finland as in a one multi-profile tourist space.

There are grounds to believe, pointed out V.A.Shlyamin, that international tourism can be the main economic sphere in the Loukhi region. Besides, the Arkhangelsk corridor and "the White Road" as its component part, may be a trade-economic and a cultural Karelian bridge between the North Europe and the Ural Mountains at the same time. A prerequisite for this is that the Luokhi region and adjoining territories of North-East Finland will take quite a definite place both in Finland's conception of "Northern dimension", and in the conception of Karelian development up to 2002. It has turned out that Karelian and Finnish conceptions are being developed simultaneously. Even today we can see, highlighted V.A.Shlyamin, that "Northern dimension" in the Finnish conception envelops The Murmansk, Arkhangelsk regions, the Republic of Karelia including the Loukhi region. So, Finland revealed its intentions to reconsider its regional policy.

In closing the Foreign Relations Minister informed about the plans of building an international automobile post Suoperya-Kortesalmi in the Loukhi region. The Government of Karelia understands well, marked V.A.Shlyamin, that further development of the republic, especially of its Northern part, will be closely connected with development pace of boundary and customs structure.

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Created: November 1998
Last updated: November 1998