OREANDA-NEWS. June 1, 2012. Good neighbourly relations between the residents of frontier territories of the Republic of Karelia and Finland intensify from year to year. Especially active are manpower exchange processes, the youth more and more often takes an opportunity to study in educational institutions of the neighbouring territories, businessmen of Finland and Karelia search for opportunities to launch their business beyond the border.

The joint project of the Ministry of Labour and Employment of the Republic of Karelia (implementation through the Employment Center of Petrozavodsk) and Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland (coordination through the Regional Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centre) North Karelia) within the scope of the Russian-Finnish cross-border cooperation launched on April 1, 2010 was called to make these processes civilized.

The South Savo ELY Centre, Centre for International Mobility CIMO, experts of the project M14 Eastern Finland as a Pilot Area in Active Immigration Policy from Mikkeli took part in the project.

On May, 24-25 in Petrozavodsk at the Karelian-Finnish seminar the project within the framework of which the Information Board on the Manpower and Student Mobility of the Region of East Finland and the Republic of Karelia has opened on October 26, 2010 in the Employment Center of Petrozavodsk was summed up.

– The manpower mobility, especially regarding the young people, is a natural phenomenon of the modern world, and our task is to make the process of looking for a job or an educational institution, starting the business abroad as much civilized and clear for the population as possible, – the First Deputy Minister of Labour and Employment of the Republic of Karelia Giviy Karapetov mentioned in his opening speech addressing to participants of the seminar.

The primary goal of the Info-board in Petrozavodsk organized on conditions of co-financing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Ministry of Labour and Employment of the RK and the ELY Centre of North Karelia (the project implementation costed € 216,000) was to establish a system of consultating to support controllable manpower and student mobility on continuing basis by means of reliable intermediary channels of cooperation.

From the moment of its opening, experts of the Info-board which has become a part of the employment service of the Republic of Karelia have rendered 1760 consultations on various issues: about labour life in Finland, employment opportunities offered by Finnish enterprises and admission to Finnish educational institutions, learning Finnish language, organization of business, residence permits, etc.

Participants of the seminar observed that the Info-board became an information channel which prevented distribution of low-grade rumour-based information, all kinds of abusings in the sphere of employment and admission in Finland, as well as data selling.

– It is remarkable, that the date of the seminar coincides with the date when our cooperation in the sphere of employment was launched 21 years ago, – Olli Sorainen, Counsellor of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland, said. – We consider the project successful, and we hope that work of the Info-board in Petrozavodsk will proceed.

Olli Sorainen has supported Alexander Pavlov, expert of the Ministry of Economic Development of the RK, who spoke at the seminar about the new impulse for development, especially in the field of economic relations, that Karelia and Finland will gain from Russia's accession to WTO. Therefore, the work which the Info-board will continue on a new basis will remain essential for the population of our republic.