WTO membership to open up Russian market to competition

Russia will become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2012. This will open the market for competition and improve the predictability of the operating environment. For the Finnish forest sector, Russia’s accession to the WTO is a welcome step, whereas Russian companies are expecting the implications to be mainly negative. In the short term, Russia’s membership will not bring about significant change to practical operations.

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Russia’s national forest policy near completion – first draft released on 29 March

Up until now, Russia has not had a consistent national forest policy document. Major changes in the country’s forest sector in recent years have expedited the reaching of an agreement on strategy definitions – and the results are beginning to show. The first draft of strategy definitions for Russia’s forest policy was released at a forestry forum in Moscow on 29 March. Now the draft is open for comment.

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All about the Russian forest sector – a new handbook available

The Finnish Forest Research Institute – Metla has published a handbook about the Russian forest sector – ”Northwest Russian Forest Sector in a Nutshell”. The book is targeted for specialists and decision-makers in companies, organisations, forest administration and management, and it can also be used for research and training purposes.

Media release