Research Center for SCO and APR on January 12^th 2021 in connection with Hokkaido University Arctic Research Center organized the Online workshop «Multilevel Governance and Interregional Cooperation: vol.1 – The Pacific Arctic».

The event was held under the project Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) II with support of the Human Resource Development Platform for Japan-Russia Economic Cooperation and Personnel Exchange (HaRP) and UArctic Thematic Network on the Arctic in Asia, Asia in the Arctic. The online workshop was held via Zoom and was first of the events of ArCS II, dedicated to the multilevel governance and interregional cooperation in the Arctic.

The head of our Center Aleksandr Voronenko was the main speaker of the conference. In his presentation he showed the interdependence between the level of small and medium business in the Arctic region and sustainable development of the region. He highlighted the importance of expansion of interregional international contacts for the development of entrepreneurship in the Arctic, especially in the conditions of weak internal market, law population and remoteness from developed economic centers. With the use of the example of Barents Euro-Arctic Council the report described the effectiveness of such interregional organizations in the terms of listed above processes.

In the conclusion of his report, A. Voronenko posed the project of Bering Pacific-Arctic Council as an instrument for the sustainable development of eastern Arctic. This initiative was announced by the group of enthusiasts under the lead of professor of Economic Research Institute (Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Science) Boris Krasnopolskii during the Russian-American Pacific Partnership forum in June 2019. The results of the evaluation of the project showed the viability of the concept, but its practical implementation is still under the question because of the COVID-19 situation and turbulence in Russian-American relations.

Aileen Espiritu from the Barents Institute of the Arctic University of Norway and Mia Bennett from the Department of Geography of the University of Hong Kong made comments of the report. They agreed to such a concept of the sustainable development of the Arctic and gave several recommendations and directions for further research. In addition they showed willingness to combine the efforts in further exploration of this issue and to exchange the practical experience.

Hopefully, this online workshop will transform into significant scientific projects with participation of the Research Center for SCO and APR of Khabarovsk State University of Economics and Law.