New Opportunities for Northwest Russian Participation
St.Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo
May, 14-15, 2001

Martti Ahokas
Chair of the Finnish Sub-committee for Interreg IIC Baltic Sea Region
Director (regional planning), Regional Council of Central Finland

KARELIAN ATLANTIC SPATIAL NETWORK (KASPNET):
An Example of Successful Co-operation

1. Major Participants

   Republic of Karelia (RUS)
   Ministry of the Environment (FIN)
   Regional Councils of
   North Karelia (FIN)
   Central Finland (FIN)
   County Government of Västernorrland (S)
   Regional Council of Sor Trondelag (N)
   

2. Time frames
   April 1999
   June 2001
   

3. Sources of financing on the Russian side
   No TACIS funding
   Local funding from the officials of Republic of Karelia
   Some minor resources from the County Government of Västernorrland and other partners
   

4. Description of the project
   As an overall objective
   to establish,
   to encourage and
   to support
   a network of spatial actors
   to pave a way for opportunities of substantial development through:

   - co-ordination of local and regional actors
   - exchange of knowledge & skills
   - mutual development of planning and development methods

   Promotion of energy systems & technologies which are based on local renewable energy sources
   A new planning & development strategy which is based on 'best practices' of national and international partners
   

5. Achieved results
   

   PROBLEM

   NEED

   1. PEOPLE MOVING OUT, LOW BIRTH RATE, REDUCTION OF POPULATION 2. OLD BUSINESS DONT KEEP COMPETITIVENESS ON NEW GLOBAL MARKET 3. NEED FOR BETTER COMMUNICATIONS FOR PEOPLE AND CARGO 4. LOW LEVEL OF EDUCATION IN THE POPULATION 5. NEED FOR NEW PRODUCTS, BETTER REFINEMENT AND INNOVATIONS 6. LOW INTEREST IN POPULATION FOR ADAPTION TO NEW SITUATIONS 7. ENTERPRISE NEGATIVE ATTITUDES 8. NON-COOPERATION ATTITUDES IN SMALLER BUSINESS

   1. INCREASED ATTRACTIVITY FOR PERSONS MOVING IN/BACK 2. STRUCTURAL CHANGES, NEW PRODUCTS OR /AND NEW BUSINESS 3. BETTER/FASTER RAILROADS, BETTER ROADS 4. DEVELOP EDUCATION FACILITIES AND STIMULATE LEARNING 5. STIMULATE INNOVATIONS AND NEW ENTERPRISES 6. INFORMATION ABOUT GLOBAL ECONOMY THREATS AND POSSIBILITIES 7. STRENGTHEN BELIEF IN OWN ABILITY 8. NEW NETWORK COOPERATION ATTITUDE AND SYSTEM

   Benefits:

   1. A code for best practice in spatial planning and development
   2. Commonalties in the spatial planning strategy
   3. A new forum for co-operation between actors ("to lower a threshold for partnership")
   4. A list for potential projects in near future
      

6. Bottlenecks during the process
   

   1. Missing financial support from TACIS
   2. Far too many local and regional actors (21 partners)
   3. "A chain is as weak/strong as the weakest ring"
   4. Low involvement of Norwegian partners
   5. Differences in language skills and other cultural obstacles; e.g. Weak & poor involvement & commitment of partners
      Disconnected & random objectives
      Differences in schedules and interim reports: difficulties to keep partners in line
      "Slow money": need for cash money
      

7. Information material (etc.)

   home page: http://www.y.lst.se/kaspnet/index.html
   publications from Central Finland:

   16 + 1 + 1 publications on 'Urban Milieu Renewal and Using Internet as a Tool in Spatial planning'
   GIS based 'Management System for City Planning'; City of Jyvaskyla (not yet completed)
   Training material for municipal decision makers and planners on 'more economical spatial structures in municipalities'
   

8. Some possible project ideas for the future

   1. COMMERCIAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT BASED ON NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

   - PROFILING THE AREA TO AN INTERNATIONAL MARKET
   - COOPERATION IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING
   - COOPERATION IN EDUCATION OF SALES ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTREPRENEURS IN HOW TO RUN TOURISM IN A COMMERCIAL WAY

   2. DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL CENTRA IN RURAL AREAS

   - COMMERCIAL ATTRACTIVISIESS
   - ATTRACTIVE RENEWAL OF THE TOWNS BUILT ON THEIR CULTURAL CHARACTER
   - PUBLIC SERVICE 1 NEW ORGANIZATION

   3. LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT

   - SMALL SCALE LOCAL ECOLOGICAL PRODUCTION AS A COMPLEMENT TO GLOBAL LARGE SCALE (BSE)
   - SPECIALITIES CONNECTED TO TOURISM PROFILING
   - LOCAL TRADITIONAL DISHES IN RESTAURANTS

   4. NEW LOCAL PRODUCTION BASED ON HIGH QUALITY AND DESIGN

   - NEW PRODUCTS FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
   - CONTACT PROJECTS BETWEEN DESIGNERS AND COMPANIES

   5. CITY DEVELOPMENT PLANNING BASED ON

   - GLOBAL COMPETITIVNESS
   - QUALITY OF LIFE
   - CULTURAL HERITAGE
   - TOURISM PROFILE

   6. COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

   - IMPROVING A COMMON REMOTE SITUATION
   - NORTH EAST CARGO LINK
   - INTER-URBAN COMMUTING SYSTEM

   7. SUSTAINABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT: LOCAL RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

   - IMPROVEMENTS WHICH CAN BE COMPLETED BY LOCAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES
   - KEYWORDS: 'LOCAL WORK' & 'LOCAL MATERIALS'

   8. NEW INTERACTIVE MODEL OF REGIONAL PLANNING WITHIN INTERNET SURROUNDINGS
   9. COMPASS OF CULTURE 2002-2004

   - CULTURAL ACTIVITY MEANS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
   - FROM TRAENA TO ONEGA: Geographically the Compass of Culture Project covers the regions of the Atlantic Karelian Development Corridor.

   10.   People to contact

   Mats Henriksson
   +46-611-349 136, +46-(0)70-680 1482, mats.henriksson@y.lst.se
   
   Risto Poutiainen
   +358-(0)13-259 1111, +358-(0)40-546 9649, risto.poutiainen@pkarjala.fi
   
   Martti Ahokas
   +358-(0)14-652 220, +358-(0)40-595 0001, martti.ahokas@keskisuomi.fi