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The orchestra plays in spirit.
Are we ready for new openings, ideas and daring?

Blog: We are turning the page for a completely new era

Release
31.12.2020 15:04
Imatra's deputy city manager Kaisa Heino emphasizes in her blog at the turn of the year that Imatra needs seamless teamwork to succeed. You have to dare to trust new ideas.

2020 was a turning point. And not only because the decade changed. The past year has fundamentally turned the operating models and structures of our society into new directions.

We still don't know exactly what kind of world we will continue our lives in after we have been able to say our long-awaited goodbye to the corona.

The time for the final farewell will come around the middle of the new year. Around the same time, a new four-year council term begins in all Finnish municipalities and cities.

So far, Finland has survived the year of turmoil significantly better than the rest of the world. It is easy to agree with the general mood of the nation, which the latest studies also show: Finns' national pride has risen significantly during the past year colored by the corona crisis.

Imatra and our entire province have also survived the miseries of the corona exceptionally well. Could it be that the year 2020 would have also united us South Karelian and Imatra people to notice and appreciate the strengths and things to be proud of in our own region.

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As elsewhere in Finland, the events of the next few years in South Karelia will also be decisive for the development prospects of our region in the coming decades. Current scenarios suggest that already in the middle of this decade - i.e. in five years - the number of children under the age of 6 in Imatra will be less than a thousand, while at the beginning of the 2010s it was around 1700 children.

The figures stated above mean that the number of children of early childhood education age will decrease by about 700 children in the next few years from the number in 2010. This corresponds to the reduction of about ten whole kindergartens in our service structure.

At the same time, service homes for the elderly are being built and entire apartment buildings are being torn down due to vacant apartments. Last year alone, during the first two thirds of the year, Imatra's Vuokra-asunnti had the equivalent of an entire block of flats empty.

And the pace is picking up. At the end of 2020, there were again more than 400 fewer people from Imatra than there were at the beginning of the year.

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Is our Imatra going in the direction we hope? Can we get the ongoing development to change its direction by enhancing the coastal paths and building interesting outdoor areas?

As important as the attractive nature sites and recreation areas are, they are unfortunately not enough to make the changes required to stop current development and secure Imatra's vibrant future.

As soon as Corona is a life left behind, we must be ready for a big leap with which we can meet the demands of the new era. The leap with which we translate the changes in society and values ​​brought about by the corona into Imatra's strengths.

The concrete means for a big leap are completely attainable, but require great efforts, successes and, above all, seamless cooperation between the townspeople and the key players in our province.

The people of Imatra must combine their forces even more so that we can make great things happen and hone the diamonds that shine out of our existing strengths.

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The things we need to succeed in mean, for example, the opening of passenger train traffic from St. Petersburg to Imatrankoski, new investments, interesting tourist destinations, new technology businesses, students, investors and entrepreneurs. This list contains only a few key factors.

Imatra published just before Christmas an idea competition aimed at university students in order to get suggestions from the key players of our future on what means they think should be used to implement the new generation's competence-based vitality goals.

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All opportunities for success are within our reach. Succeeding in them requires that we, as a city and an urban community, are able to show that we are an interesting, reliable and reliable actor as part of a national and international network. That's why we mustn't just fall into the wooden nails of our own corners. You have to dare to trust new ideas.

It is obvious that the means that have been in use until now will not save us in the race.

Are we ready for new openings, ideas and daring?

All of these are needed from each of us when we enter the post-corona world.

Kaisa Heino

Deputy mayor of Imatra