22.07.2013

At the meeting, participants discussed ideological issues, strategies and structures of the initiative. They analyzed the preparation of proposals for the implementation of public-private partnership mechanism in the Baltic Sea Region.

Nuritdin Inamov, the Director of International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation chaired the meeting.

A working group for the implementation of the St. Petersburg Initiative was created at the meeting. Its goal is to create a Steering Committee, the Board of Partners and a Secretariat, which will work together on implementing the initiative.

Moreover, the Secretariat of the Working Group was also approved.

The Board of Partners was formed from representatives of certain organizations that are interested in public-private partnership projects aimed at implementing the St. Petersburg Initiative. These are:

• the Administrations of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast,
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
• the North Investment Bank (NIB),
• Center for International Industrial Cooperation of UNIDO in the Russian Federation
• Helsinki Commission (HELCOM),
• Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP),
• the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO),
• the State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank),
• the financial group Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau Bankengruppe (KfW),
• International Business Solution Center,
• Gazprom OJSC,
• LUKOIL OJSC,
• AK Transneft OJSC,
• SUE Vodokanal of St. Petersburg,
• NGO Ecology and Business,
• the Baltic Fund for Nature,
• St. Petersburg Research Center for Ecological Safety of RAS,
• as well as representatives of federal executive bodies and regions.

At the meeting, the participants discussed the possibility of implementing the project with the participation of Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring. They wanted to establish a Baltic Sea regional monitoring network, and noted the interest of the St. Petersburg Research Center for Ecological Safety of RAS in environmental projects in the Baltic Sea Region. The participants spoke about the possibility of SUE Vodokanal of St. Petersburg supporting Baltic Sea environmental projects.

Anders Bloom, the Resident Coordinator of the Finnish Group of Advisers of the CBSS at the St. Petersburg Administration, mentioned one example of a successfully implemented environmental project in the region – the water treatment system in St. Petersburg. Mr. Bloom noted the importance of public-private partnerships in the Baltic Region.

Following the meeting, the representatives of the Board of Partners would have to prepare and send to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources proposals for the implementation of St. Petersburg Initiative projects. The Secretariat of the Working Group would compile proposals for the main projects, received from members of the Board of Partners, and would present them at the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting in Copenhagen in October 2013. In its turn, the Center for International Industrial Cooperation of UNIDO in the Russian Federation would present to the Ministry of Natural Resources proposals to develop and finance joint projects.

In summing up the meeting, N. Inamov emphasized that the St. Petersburg Initiative was a platform for the interaction and dialogue between the government, business and society, where the most effective ways of interaction would be discovered.

Source: Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources

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