Perm Mayor Dmitry Samoilov receives a certificate of merit for contribution to developing cooperation with Germany

Photo by Sascha Radke

Berlin hosted a conference summing up the results of  2017-2018Russian-German cross year of regional municipal partnerships. The event was patronized by foreign ministries of the Russian Federation and Germany. 

At the closing plenary session Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presented the Certificate of Merit “To the cities of Perm and Duisburg for their significant contribution into developing municipal cooperation between Russia and Germany” to Mayor of Perm Dmitry Samoilov 

Under the framework of Russian-German cross year of municipal partnership the twinned cities of Perm and Duisburg implemented a joint project titled “10-year partnership of Perm and Duisburg: demonstration of tangible results of people-to-people diplomacy”. The project was one of the winners in a competition organized by the German-Russian Forum and the Union of Russian Cities, which gathered around 300 contest applications. 

Participating in the conference session “Formulating development perspectives for improving quality of life in municipalities and regions” Dmitry Samoilov delivered a presentation on the role of municipal governments in creating conditions for developing people-to-people diplomacy based on the experience of Perm. Using the example of Perm and Duisburg, he focused on the factors and components ensuring establishing and developing successful  twinned relationships, the importance of best practices exchange  in the local government’s work  to improve the quality of life of the residents, as well as the scope and variety of joint actions and intercultural  interactions, encouraging the residents initiative and involving the young people into twinned cities projects. 

The conference was also joined by the delegation from  Perm’s twinned city - Duisburg, headed by the Head of Administration Dr Dörte Diemert.