Yekaterinburg and Germany Strengthen Partnership

Next November Yekaterinburg will host an exhibition dedicated to the artistic heritage of Hermann Hesse, Nobel Prize in Literature. Yuri Osintsev, the Minister of External Relations, Sverdlovsk Region, and Dr. Helmut Hagel, the Director of the Training Academy for Teachers of Baden-Vurtenberg, Germany, met today to discuss the coming event. As the minsiter's press service informed, the opening of the exhibition will coincide with the 150th anniversary of Kalve, the writer's birthplace, with Baden-Vurtenberg's 50th anniversary and with the 10th anniversary of Baden-Vurtenberg's cooperation with the Sverdlovsk Region. Some experts agree that this is the first exhibition of its kind in Russia. It will be open for one month. Currently the organisers are busy collecting and preparing the exhibits. The opening ceremony will be attended by the representatives of Baden-Vurtenberg, the German Ambassador to Russia and other officials.

The press service also reported that on December 14, 1991 Edward Rossel, the Mayor of the Sverdlovsk Region, and Erwin Toifel, the Prime Minister of Baden-Vurtenberg signed a protocol of regional cooperation. Since then five cooperation actions have taken place, more than 54 German and 450 Ural companies participating. The German side considers the results to be much better than after similar actions elsewhere else in Russia and the CIS. There are 62 Russian-German joint ventures in the Sverdlovsk Region. This June the working group for encouraging economic cooperation between the region and Baden-Vurtenberg will hold its regular session. There will also be yet another cooperation action.