Valentina Matviyenko: St. Petersburg is ready to celebrate its 300th anniversary

St. Petersburg is ready to celebrate its 300th anniversary, Valentina Matviyenko, the Russian president's plenipotentiary to the Northwestern Federal District, said in a live broadcast on Ekho Moskvy radio station on Friday.

Preparations for the jubilee are "just the beginning of the effort to renovate the unique city of St. Petersburg," she said.

Matviyenko stressed that St. Petersburg, with its vast number of cultural and architectural monuments, needed vast funds and all-round support.

She also said development of the tourist business could greatly speed up the development of a city that could be turned into a "tourist Mecca." "Add dynamics to St. Petersburg's huge educational, industrial and economic potential, and the city will get truly grand prospects," she concluded.