An interesting opportunity in Russia for 2010?

I have been invited to join a delegation to Minsk in Belarus in late January 2010. Nottingham has been twinned with Minsk since 1957. It sounds a really interesting opportunity…

The skating rink at Minsk - courtesy Oleg Babinets

Their masterplan document sets out their rationale, “Nottingham is associated with British traditions, featuring stability, respectful attitude to the history of the homeland, high levels of public socialisation and strive for living in harmony with the environment”. Some of the themes might be lost a little in translation – but they clearly have respect for our history.

What is really interesting (and a suggestion from Mark Hobson at Mabers) is that Nottingham may put together a team who can collaborate on providing Minsk with building expertise. I think this is a really good idea – we have an enormous amount of expertise locally and are used to working together. But this suggestion may try to go further than this – actually creating a consortium. The consortium looks likely to include Agents, Architects, Engineers, QS’s and Investors. It may also include some of our education establishments (Colleges and Universities).

GDP growth in Belarus has been just shy of 10% year on year. They also have a large manufacturing base – Minsk Tractor Plant employ 30,000 people – by comparison Raleigh in Nottingham employed 7,000 at its height of production in the 1960′s.

The first trip does coincide with their rather cold snap – the record low in January is -39 C. And in the light of the timescale I am not sure my Russian is going to be much further along! It is interesting to note that 73.7% of schoolchildren there are learning English.

There is another interesting connection – on 29th May in each year they celebrate Spring Day – when they have fairs and celebrate the capture of Robin Hood! I must confess to not knowing that! But another connection to Robin Hood for the City!

Our first job might be to find a Russian word to replace ‘compound’…

UPDATE 7th JANUARY 2010

I have decided, in consultation with my fellow Directors not to go on this delegation to Minsk. This is partly due to pressures on my diary, but also that we have been offered a similar opportunity in Krasnador. The latter town is likely to enter a strategic PArtnership with Nottingham in March. We are keen to offer our expertise to Minsk and will monitor the opportunity. I am really keen to see if we can become part of a Nottingham Consortium of Consultants. Such collaborative working is starting to look like how the world will operate in the next decade?