U.S. Agency for International Development Visits Vladivostok

VLADIVOSTOK. June 4. VOSTOK-MEDIA – Today, on June 4, the deputy mayor of Vladivostok Natalya Zubova held a business meeting with the delegation of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), headed by the director of the agency Leon Waskin.

Marina Sotnikova, Head of Finance and Economic Department, Alexey Moiseenko and also Irina Lindberg, coordinator of USAID programs at the Russian Far East and other USAID members took part in the meeting.

Operations of municipal services under conditions of the world financial crisis were discussed at the meeting. The programs for integration of mutually beneficial co-operation were outlined. It was stated at the meeting that no less than a quarter of total volume of Russian USAID financing falls on the Russian Far East.

Natalya Zubova stressed that no federal programme in the framework of the Law “On development of Vladivostok as the center for international cooperation in Asian-Pacific region” was subject to sequestering and that development of the region for its momentous events – hosting of APEC-2012 Summit and 150-anniversary of Vladivostok foundation – is going according to plan.

Leon Waskin stated that next year the majority of USAID programmes on development of co-operation with the Russian Far East. Therefore, its vital to set out new avenues of municipal cooperation with various US agencies and bodies not only at the government level but also in development of civil society, medicine, small and medium business, humanitarian cooperation, ecology and environmental conservation.

The participants of the business meeting expressed mutual opinion that such meetings open up new vistas for fruitful development of international cooperation in the period of the global financial crisis.