Social issues, gender equality and health (including anti-drugs work and work with children and young people) were identified as the most important and topical points for regional development by the office of the President's representative in North-West Russia, Ilja I. Klebanov, in October 2004. Subsequent expert studies commissioned by Klebanov's office after a meeting in September 2004 with the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Per Unckel, have identified the sectors most ripe for closer co-operation.

The seminar allowed ideas and opinions to be exchanged on issues such as co-operation on development, joint social responsibility, gender equality, drugs, infectious diseases, violence, trafficking, children's rights and the problems faced by young people.

One of the objectives behind the seminar was to devise a new, complex system to facilitate a better information flow in the social sector between Saint Petersburg and the Nordic countries and achieve positive synergy effects. Both bodies will be involved in co-ordinating the activities. The plans also include training for social workers involved with children and families.

Participants in the seminar included the Icelandic Minister of the Environment, Jónína Bjartmarz; the Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg, Ludmila Kostkina; the chairperson of the Committee for Work and Social Security, Alexander Rzhanenkov; advisers Carita Peltonen, Loa Bogason and Maria Pia de Palo from the Nordic Council of Ministers' Secretariat; staff from the Council of Ministers' Office in the city; local civil servants; Sonja Edissen, a Norwegian representative and specialist in work on children and on gender equality and representatives from the Committee for Health Services.