ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT FORUM OF THE NORDIC REGIONS IN ST. PETERSBURG ON 25-26 February 1998

At the third Energy and Environment Forum of the Nordic Regions, held in St. Petersburg, representatives from Murmansk, Archangels, Leningrad and Tobolsky Oblast, the Republic of Karelia and the city of St. Petersburg participated. From Finland representatives of the Finnish
Foreign Trade Association, the Ministry of Environment, the County Administration of Oulu and University of Oulu and from Sweden representatives of the Ministry of Trade and Industry were present. International Financing Institutions along with many companies were also represented at the Forum. 

Lectures were given on heat supply, water supply and waste disposal service, development of telecommunications, energy efficient construction, international co-operation and realisation of energy saving projects within the Tacis programme. International Financing Institutions (World Bank, Nefco, EBRD) presented their operations models and realisation of projects.

At the Forum the following issues were discussed:

1. Administration and organisation of the Forum

It was noted that there has been founded an Ecotech-Energy-50 Association in Finland. The administration of the Forum will be divided into the management group and the secretariat as agreed before.

2. New regions

The administration of Tobolsky region was warmly welcomed:

3. Working Groups

At the Forum in St. Petersburg was founded three working groups – heat supply, water supply and information technology. Protocols of working groups are an official part of the memorandum.

The Forum noted that work of working groups is an essential part of development of energy- and environment technology in north-west Russia and agreed to develop co-operation between different parties in a long-ranged fashion. 

4. The following forum

The following Energy and Environment Forum will be organised in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia.