brief outline about...

Creative Industries Development Partnership: Cities of St Petersburg, Helsinki and Manchester initiated under the aegis of The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, the Partnership has been awarded a grant by the European Commission's Tacis Cross-Border Cooperation Programme.
The fastest-growing economic sector in Europe is made up of SMEs whose business activity is based on individual creativity in the arts, on knowledge skills and talent. The Creative Industries Small and Medium Enterprise (CI SME) sector has been identified in EU countries as distinct, serving a key function in post-industrial economies and needing sector-specific training and support. The three-city partnership will bring the two EU cities' specialist expertise together with the excellent potential in this sector in St Petersburg.

   brief outline...
:: partners & members :::: policy & initiatives :::: creative industries :::: projects :::: forum :::: events ::

In the EC-supported programme, the city governments of St Petersburg, Helsinki and Manchester share commitment to promoting this sector in Russia's 'cultural capital'. St Petersburg's outstanding heritage and live arts, its forthcoming Tercentenary and the City Administration's goals of developing cultural tourism and restructuring manufacturing industry make a creative industries policy especially important. Of the EU project partners, Helsinki can demonstrate very recent success in combating economic decline through creative industry development; and Manchester has set up a pioneering creative industries support centre and leads an EU development network.

  tasks & purposes  about

The Development Partnership's overall aim is to create jobs, by building on the city of St Petersburg's cultural strength to meet the Strategic Plan for St Petersburg's goals of restructuring industry, becoming a world centre of cultural tourism and creating a consumer-oriented service infrastructure.

It will do this by developing a new sector of small and medium enterprise (SME), known as 'creative industries', to provide for income generation to complement the capital investment planned in the World Bank-supported City Centre Rehabilitation Project and to themselves be a regenerative force reanimating and regenerating the city's historic architecture, while also promoting skills to help restructure the city's manufacturing industry to become competitive nationally and internationally.

The project involves an 18-month programme to embed these ideas in St Petersburg's administrative and educational institutions, to develop sectoral awareness and set up a pilot SME creative industries support and development service.

  main directions  about

The project activities include: thematic seminars, training of key personnel, a cross-border study visit, establishment of advisory and development functions, creation of information material and capacity building. The objectives include setting up a St Petersburg CI SME development and support strategy, joint planning of sector-specific training modules, cross-border Helsinki-St Petersburg SME links, and the selection and development of CI SME pilot projects with mentoring by Helsinki and locally-based international business partners.

For further information, please contact:
Elena Belova, Academic Secretary, Leontief Centre, Tel: +7 (812) 319 9626; e-m: belova@leontief.spb.su
Susan Causey, Programme Manager, Russia, Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum. Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 1473; e-m: susan.causey@iblf.org.


:: Леонтьевский Центр / Leontief Center :: :: Design 4 Masses ::