Experts Discuss Siberia's Urban Development

"Urban Development as Basis for 21st Century Siberia's Progress: Adaptation of Siberian and Far Eastern Cities to the Contemporary Social and Economic Situation" is the theme of an expert conference which opened today in Novosibirsk, principal industrial and research centre of West Siberia. It was convened on a joint initiative of the Novosibirsk municipal administration and the Association of Siberian and Far Eastern Cities. The event gathered chief architectural and urban development experts from republican, territorial, regional and municipal administrations of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and their French and German colleagues. Debates will concern the urban layout, residential district updating, improvements on the city centre, and the preservation and use of cultural and historical monuments. "Urban Development Policies in the Contemporary Social and Economic Situation and Drawing on Pioneer Experience of Best-Developed European Countries" is the topic of a report to be delivered by Albert Karimov, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Research, and head architect of Omsk, a provincial centre in West Siberia. Ralf Protz, president of the Large Settlement Study Centre, Germany, will speak on Berlin developmental strategies.