[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 4, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               THE CSIS ST. PETERSBURG ACTION COMMISSION

                                 ______


                           HON. DAVE McCURDY

                              of oklahoma

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 4, 1994

  Mr. McCURDY. Mr. Speaker, I want to invite the attention of my 
colleagues in Congress to a unique international partnership formed by 
the Center for Strategic and International Studies [CSIS], a 
distinguished policy research institution in Washington, DC. I refer to 
the International Action Commission for St. Petersburg, on which I 
serve, and which is successfully increasing investment and business 
growth and speeding the process of economic conversion in St. 
Petersburg city and region. Working under the joint leadership of Dr. 
Henry Kissinger and Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, the 71 commissioners, 
comprising leaders of business, government, and universities from six 
nations, play an aggressive and direct role in bringing about an 
impressive number of positive changes in northwest Russia.
  Commission actions are developed and implemented through a framework 
for cooperation involving 11 joint Russian-Western working groups and a 
consortium of international universities. These working groups have 26 
concrete actions completed or underway in areas ranging from 
arbitration court development to defense industry conversion and energy 
conservation. Through these actions, and through the partnership that 
has created them, the commission has sparked joint venture development, 
growing private and public investment in the St. Petersburg region, job 
growth, business education, technical assistance, and the building of 
structures necessary for a functioning free-market economy and stable 
economic growth. These significant and tangible results not only 
provide clear benefits to the St. Petersburg region, but they also 
serve as a model for economic conversion for other Russian cities and 
regions, and cement a healthy working relationship between American and 
Russian leaders.
  The intense activity taking place in St. Petersburg through this 
commission, the enthusiastic involvement of so many senior leaders, and 
the early successes already achieved in this effort, underscore the 
critical importance--to both Russia and the United States--of strong, 
bottoms-up change in this strategic region of Russia to accompany top-
down reform efforts led from Moscow.
  Under the leadership of its president, Ambassador David M. Abshire, 
CSIS's effort on this project merits our admiration and support.

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