Development of handicrafts will boost the economy of Karelia and Finland

A new international project “Identity Development of Northern Crafts: Northern Crafts ID” will increase the role of craftsmen in the cross-border economic development of Karelia and Finland. This project led by the Association of Ethnocultural Centres and Heritage Organizations ECHO and its partners was selected by the ENI CBC Karelia programme under the priority “Growing cross-border business cooperation”. The project aims to improve capacity and increase possibility to start and develop handicrafts related business.

Project partners will conduct marketing research and craftsmen mapping, introduce a series of business-trainings for craftsmen and publish a manual on business development in the handicraft sector. The project will open a Handicraft Consult Center in Petrozavodsk with the goal to help craftsmen to position, brand and promote their products in the market. Best available economists, designers, scientists, tourism and handicrafts development experts from the region will engage in this activity.

It is expected that handicrafts will go beyond their value as a cultural phenomenon and become an entrepreneurship development factor in the cross-border area. The project will boost the Russian-Finnish cooperation and will benefit from the strengths available on both sides of the border.

Local points on the Russian side:
  • Svetlana Kolchurina, project leader
  • Aleksei Tsykarev, project coordinator

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The project “Identity Development of Northern Crafts: Northern Crafts ID” supported by ENI CBC Karelia programme will be implemented from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2022. Project partners are Association of Ethnocultural Centres and Heritage Organizations ECHO (lead partner), University of Eastern Finland, Finland — Russia — society, tourist company Karelika and Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples and Civic Diplomacy “Young Karelia”.

20 december 2019