CTS's subsidiary launched with a dignified ceremony in St. Petersburg

The audience listened to the speech of  Alexandr V. Prohorenko, representative of St. Petersburg Government and chairman of St. Petersburg Foreign Relations Committee.

The opening of CTS Engtec's Russian subsidiary was celebrated on 25th November 2011in St. Petersburg with the presence of a group of dignitaries.

The opening ceremony, which was arranged to take place at the Consulate General of Finland, brought together more than 100 guests. Among the guests, there were many St. Petersburg´s government officials and politicians. There were also many executives from Finland's and Russia's technology and forest industries and other businesses as well as representatives of media and cooperation partners.

The welcome speech was held by Consul General Olli Perheentupa.

Guest of honour, Mauri Pekkarinen, held the keynote address

The keynote address of the event dealing with, among other things, the trade relations of Finland and Russia was delivered by Mauri Pekkarinen, the Chairman of the Commerce Committee of the Finnish Parliament.

- Russia is Finland's biggest trade partner. Of our imports last year, no less than 17.8%, that is, over € 9 billion, came from Russia. The import figures from Germany were 13.3% and from Sweden 10.1%.

- The value of Finland's exports to Russia last year was close to € 5 billion, and the share of Finland's total exports about 9%.

- St. Petersburg and our other neighbouring regions naturally play a very important role in the commercial relations between Finland and Russia. A large part of approximately 500 businesses are established in Russia and operate in St. Petersburg or its neighbouring areas. There are still great possibilities for quantitative and industry-specific expansion in commercial relations.

- Experiences from the last few years tell us that the cooperation between Finland and Russia in technology and innovations has had a good start.

- A memorandum of understanding related to energy efficiency and renewable energy was signed in January 2010.In accordance with an agreement signed by me and Minister Shmatko, Finnish-Russian Energy Club was established at the end of August 2010 in Finland to implement the memorandum together with the Russian Ministry of Energy. The energy club is made up of companies, industry organizations and ministries.

- These new areas of cooperation and activity have increased also the chances of Finnish expertise in engineering, design and planning as well as in consulting in Russia and to Russia.

- CTS Engtec  is an international engineering and consulting company registered in Finland. The company's special strengths are energy technology and environmental technology in particular and, even in a wider sense, the areas of forest expertise.

- By opening its new premises here in St. Petersburg, the company fortifies its presence just where the going is good, that is, in Russia. What is more, the company operates in the fields where the largest cooperation areas between Finland and Russia are concentrated, Chairman Pekkarinen explained in his speech.

The keynote address of the event dealing with the trade relations of Finland and Russia was delivered by Mauri Pekkarinen.

CTS Engtec's Managing Director Antti Lukka´s  speech

- CTS Engtec, while in Finland, has worked in Russian forest industry projects already 30 years soon. We have a long, common history, which now continues and strengthens with our establishment in Russia.

 - Russia is an extremely interesting and important market area for CTS Engtec, especially as Russia soon will be a full member of WTO. It is estimated that the membership will provide a considerable boost to Russia's economy and substantially increase the trade between the EU countries and Russia.

- The service concept of CTS St. Petersburg office consists of pre-planning, basic and detailed engineering and project management services for the forest and energy industries. The top priority of the project management services are management of regulatory processes and management of adaptation of plans. Especially in project management services OOO CTS Engtec will play an important role both as a service producer as well as in the supervision of subcontractors and project management services.

-A vision about future energy production strongly directs the operations of CTS Engtec.

To achieve the targets of climate policies and production economy, we believe that the forms of energy production must be modernized, using strong and innovative measures. We need investments that diversify energy production, making the industry more competitive and transforming the energy markets for future generations to make them more efficient.

- Without a doubt, CTS Engtec  is one of Scandinavia's leading enterprises  in the engineering, design and project management of CHP plants. I can see that Russia's industry has excellent prospects to increase economical and environmentally friendly energy production, precisely with the help of CHP plants. Our strategy has a strong emphasis on the aims of sustainable development. We advocate environmental and social responsibility in the mitigation of climate change.

- We should increase the uses of new fuels in energy production. For example, CTS Engtec's two latest energy projects will produce electricity and heat for community use.

- We believe that in future the wisest is who combines the old tested methods, new knowhow and new technology.

Alexandr V. Prohorenko, representative of St. Petersburg Government and chairman of St. Petersburg Foreign Relations Committee, referred in his speech several times to MD Antti Lukka´s speech.

Both the Finnish and Russian media were widely interested in the new subsidiary. Finland´s leading broadcasting company, YLE, interviewed the Managing Director Antti Lukka in the brandnew office in Nevsky Prospekt. 

A significant agreement between Outotec and CTS Engtec

-Finally, Managing Director Lukka publicised an  important agreement which was made between Outotec, an international leader in the field as a technology producer for minerals and metals processing, and CTS Engtec.

In accordance with the order, CTS Engtec will be responsible for the layout design, process instrumentation, process piping and process electrification  of the Malomir and Pioneer gold concentrators and for similar tasks in Pokrovskiy autoclave and hydrometallurgical plant. The plants are owned by Russian Petropavlosk Group.

ILIM Groups Sergey Pondar had a speech

 In his speech, Sergey Pondar,  ILIM Group, (Managing director, Technology and Manufacturing Services), shed light on the company's future prospects and told that ILIM Group had welcomed the establishment of CTS Engtec on Russian soil.

The  welcome was joined by Aimo Ahti, Director of Kouvola City Development and Director of Economic Development. After him Anders Blom, Managing Director of Eurofacts Ltd. presented a fabulous map of Russian. Oleg Taranenko, from AMT-Antikor, presented a splendid Icon of Holy Virgin Mary of  Kazan. 

 Mr. Sergey Pondar, ILIM Group, shed light on the company's future prospects.