In June 1994 Manchester City Council obtained funding from Ouverture to set up the PARTNER project.

The aim of the project was to assess the development of local economic development partnerships as a model for local authority economic regeneration. This involved the local authority establishing new working relationships and structures with those involved in economic regeneration such as Chambers of Commerce and Higher Education Institutions.

The three cities already had strong links as both St Petersburg and Chemnitz are Manchester's twin cities. Also the Chambers of Chemnitz and St Petersburg had long-standing links in the field of trade and exchange of experience as both cities were important industrial centres in the Eastern economic system.

Manchester has the UK's first public access electronic information and communication system. Manchester City Council had already been doing innovative work with SMEs to develop the use of this system.

It was felt that this system could be used as a basis to transfer expertise, develop new ideas and enhance partnerships between and within the cities and regions involved.

During the year seminars and workshops took place in Manchester, Chemnitz and St Petersburg, involving a range of participants including representatives from the Councils involved, Chambers and development agencies. New partnerships were formed, new agreements made and new ideas developed.

A number of bulletin boards have been created on the public access system, allowing quick and up to date access to information. In particular the bulletin boards EASTWEST-TRADE andSTP-BUSINESS have become active.

Communication between the organisations involved has been greatly enhanced - one particular example is the Saxony Society for Development of Trade with the East (SGFO) based in Chemnitz-Grona which has an office in Volgograd, sister city of Chemnitz and uses the system to transfer, extract and forward relevant information.

At the TELEMART seminar in Brussels in March 1995 founder members - Chemnitz, Manchester, Riga in Latvia and Popovo in Bulgaria formed ATED (Association for the use of Telematics in Economic Development).

Currently the PARTNER participants are looking at ways of using the latest technology to increase trading opportunities between the three regions and to promote the cities world wide.

In the next phase of this project co-operation with IRIS-I will be encouraged, pilot projects will be developed such an online database of companies in Manchester to be made available through the World Wide Web. Already a STP-BUSINESS containing economic information is produced by the St Petersburg Department of External affairs and circulated to interested parties via the Internet. It is hoped that in such information exchange will lead to joint ventures and trading opportunities taking place.

A video has been produced documenting the work of the project.

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