NEWS

On March 26, at the first session of the republican Parliament of the 3rd convocation, Farid Mukhametshin has been appointed Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan. RT President Mintimer Shaimiev said it is quite natural for Farid Mukhametshin possesses experience and authority. He went on to say that it is of no small account that he is the leader of the regional section of the governing “United Russia” party.

Cooperation of Tatarstan and Sweden was discussed at the Kazan Kremlin on 22nd March at the official meeting of President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden in the RF Sven Hirdman. Referring to the IKEA store opened earlier that day, Mintimer Shaimiev emphasized that their understanding is substantiated by new achievements from meeting to meeting. Trade cooperation is just one of directions of bilateral interaction.

The IKEA store was opened in Kazan that is the first project of the company expansion. It marks the beginning of a great regional IKEA program in Russia. "Today is an important day for Kazan, because the opening of IKEA means 23.5 sq. meters of trading area, large assortment of high-quality goods and 350 highly paid vacancies,” Kazan Mayor Kamil Iskhakov said at the opening ceremony.
There were crowds of people willing to do shopping in the newly opened IKEA, so that RT President Mintimer Shaimiev who arrived for the opening ceremony was pleasantly surprised.

March 21-24, 2004, the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow holds Swedish Culture Days in Kazan. In this regard, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden Sven Hirdman and his wife arrived in Kazan on Sunday. Mr Ambassador will take part in the opening of Swedish Film Days in Kazan and IKEA store.
The official programme of the visit of Mr Hirdman will include meetings with RT President Mintimer Shaimiev, First Deputy Prime Minister Ravil Muratov, Culture Minister Ildus Tarkhanov.

Today saw a grand opening of the East wing of the main building of Kazan State University. President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev attended the opening.
Mintimer Shaimiev marked that the East wing was built a hundred years ago in 1904, so that in a hundred years after the university had been founded, and a hundred years before the today’s event.

The Kazan Kremlin, RT President Mintimer Shaimiev presented state awards of the Russian Federation and Tatarstan to the best workers of the republic. The high awards were conferred on 41 Tatarstanians, among which there are doctors, teachers, art workers, turners, machine operators, machine engineers. The order of Honour was conferred on chief physician of children's republican clinical hospital Eugeny Karpukhin.

On March 9, the House of Arts for arts and cultural workers of the Republic of Tatarstan opened on the territory of the health center “Vasilyevskiy” in Sosnovy Bor (Pinery).
President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev took part in the opening ceremony and marked that the House of Arts would be a wonderful place for work and rest for creative intelligentsia of Tatarstan.

The European Ombudsman Conference will take place in Kazan this year in October. That is the decision made at the meeting of RT President Mintimer Shaimiev and the chief director of the European Ombudsman Institute, Nikolaus Schwaerzler. The meeting was held on March 3 in the Kazan Kremlin. Earlier, the European Ombudsman Association, which residence is in Ginsburg (Austria), approved of holding the conference in Kazan. They believe that the symposium will help the ombudsmen working in the East and West get closer.

RT President Mintimer Shaimiev described the situation in the republic on the eve of the election of the RF President and deputies to the RT State Council on March 3. The President had an interview with Sinsuke Ishikava, the chief journalist of the broadcasting company NHK (Japan).
The interview will be included into the series of special reports “Russia through the prism of elections”. The program will be broadcasted in Japan and English.

The Tatarstan-France relationship will receive an impetus. That was the task set by RT President Mintimer Shaimiev and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia in the Russian Federation Jean Cadet in the Kazan Kremlin on March 1.
Earlier, France was among the first five trade partners, but today it’s on the twelve place. Both contracting parties admitted that the commodity circulation is low, there are few joint enterprises, and the cooperation between industrial factories is poorly developed.