The municipalities forming the new City of Kouvola have had various ways of dealing with international relations and communications with their twin cities or communities. With some twin cities the relations have been very active, but with some twin communities the concrete relations have been non-existent. In Kouvola, international relations have mainly been emphasised in matters of business and relations have been most active in the East, especially in China.
The municipalities forming the new City of Kouvola have had a total of 18 twin communities in eight countries, mainly in the EU and Russia. Because all of the municipalities, which formed the new City of Kouvola on January 1st, 2009 legally ceased to exist, it was decided that the former twin community relations were to cease in their current form on December 31st, 2008.
The focus of international and twin city relations in the new City of Kouvola will be decided during the year 2009. In the early stages of the city, the emphasis will be on structuring the City’s own organisation and services. This will not, however, cease ongoing projects or stop schools and institutions from continuing their cooperation as before. The cooperation of friendship associations can also continue as before, regardless of the official relations and agreements of the City.
The international activities of Kouvola will focus on benefiting the City’s services and the activities of residents, businesses and societies through cooperation. In the future, the most important thing will be the concrete results of cooperation and that new cooperation models are created for municipalities through either bilateral or multilateral cooperation.
City administration and the Department of Business are responsible for international activities.
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