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The Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation was formally established on January 11, 1993, on an initiative by Norway under foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg. The region includes the administrative regions Nordland, Troms, Finnmark in Norway, Västerbotten County, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Lapland Province, Northern Ostrobothnia, Kainuu in Finland, and Murmansk Oblast, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Komi Republic, Republic of Karelia, Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Russia.
The four countries take turns at chairing the cooperation.
The Norwegian participation in the regional cooperation is supported by the Norwegian Barents secretariat in Kirkenes. Sweden's and Finland's participation is administrated from the respective county administrations.
The Barents Cooperation has a strong regional anchoring with the Barents Regional Council being a platform for interaction between the 13 regions.
Government ministers, and first of all the countries' foreign ministers, meet every second year in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
The regional structures also include a major number of working groups and committees.
In 2008, an International Barents Secretariat was established, meant to help stimulate multi-lateral cooperation within the structures.
The situation in Barents Russia
Where is the most diversified economy, the biggest growth and the most prosperous populations? And where do foreign investors place their money? Read more about the social-economic situation in Barents Russia in a new survey from BarentsObserver.
Did you know that per capita GRP in 2009 was more than five times higher in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug than in neigbouring Arkhangelsk Oblast, that the Komi Republic is the economically most powerful subjects in the region and that Murmansk has the lowest figures on foreign investments?
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| The Barents Region |
The survey displays the Komi Republic as the by far most economically powerful subject in the region with a gross regional product (GRP) of close to 300 billion RUB. Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Oblasts follow with slightly above 200 billion RUB, while the Republic of Karelia and the Nenets AO have the lowest GRP of the region. On per capita GRP, however, the small but oil-rich Nenets AO is way above the other regions.
The survey also gives an overview of the economic structure of the regions. All figures are based on results from 2009.
With the exception of the Nenets AO, all the five regions in 2009 struggled with negative industrial production growth. In the last two months of the year however, all regions, except the Republic of Karelia experienced renewed growth in output. Similar negative results are seen in the construction industry and in investments.
The Komi Republic was the region with the highest level of foreign investments, while Murmansk Oblast was the region with the by far smallest investments. The biggest drop in foreign investments was in 2009 registered in the Nenets AO.
The social-economic survey is based primarily on figures from the Barents Monitoring reports and is composed by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s office in Arkhangelsk.
Barents Russia. Social-economic situation
