Press Release, 15.04.2015

St. Petersburg’s government involves opposition and large-scale businesses for help in amending and improving the Strategy for Economic and Social Development of St.Petersburg until 2030 (Strategy-2030).

St. Petersburg authorities have decided to use the proposals of the opposition for the strategic planning of the city. The Governor invited one of the key opposition figures in St Petersburg Parliament – leader of the YABLOKO faction Grigory Yavlinsky – to participate in this work. In addition to Strategy 2030, the city government will use YABLOKO’s “The Greater St.Petersburg. The 21st Century”.

Grigory Yavlinsky participated in the first “strategy session” on the threashold of the Urban Development Forum which will be held in May in St. Petersburg.

The May Forum will discuss how to make life in the third largest city in Europe more convenient and comfortable, while not harming the economy. St.Petersburg invites experts on urban development from China, Italy, the UK, Spain, India, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the mayors of Mumbai, Turku and Hong Kong.

However, instead of the Western experience the authorities have decided to pay attention to local ideas so far, adopting YABLOKO’s ideas. According to Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO’s document was submitted to the Governor and the city government on 14 February. The city government decided to create a working group, which included the authors of the document.

Based on http://www.dp.ru/a/2015/04/15/Smolnij_privlek_JAbloko/