Lapin AMK students presenting their research papers at iCustoms Conference in St. Petersburg in Russia

This year’s theme was ”International Business and Customs Regulations”. Students from all over the world got together to present their cooperative research papers on different topics related to the main theme, such as Data Analysis for Effective Border Management, Customs in the age of Globalization and Regionalization and Customs and Business: Cooperation Challenges.

This year Lapin AMK students Anya Prianichnikova and Niki Pleser got invited to attend the event, to present their research paper “The balance of domestic and foreign markets: the case of Russia and Finland” together with their colleagues from ITMO University, Ekaterina Kalmykova and Nelli Galiyeva. During this whole research process students got help from research advisors from both universities, Anzelika Krastina from Lapin AMK and Olga Sharapova from ITMO University.

Main goal of their research was to establish a balance of foreign trade turnover between Russia and Finland, because “Current foreign policy and external economic circumstances have led to a trend towards the curtailment of particular bilateral trade and economic ties between Russia and Finland.”

The imbalance of foreign trade is an actual problem, since economies of the countries should adapt into changing conditions of the world trade and political situation. To address this issue, their research objectives included: an analysis of the domestic and foreign markets of Russia and Finland, a proposal for the restructuring of Russia's exports and imports, a search for solutions to the redistribution of Finland's export flows.

On the second seminar day during open lecture session Anzelika Krastina had a presentation about cross-cultural implication in international projects, with a focus on the Arctic corss-border cooperation.

The head of iCustoms project Elena Gordeeva was really proud of the success of the event, especially the students’ active participation. Organizing this kind of international event requires lot of work, and it was organized mostly by students, under the guidance of Elena Gordeeva and some other teachers.

Author: Nina Niskala
Photos: Anzelika Krastina & Nina Niskala