Cesis District Council and Alytus municipality have signed the cooperation agreement in September 1999, ten years ago. They have been cooperating very successfully in the projects PIPE, Innovation Circle and different bilateral projects in education, culture exchange, cooperation of schools and some other fields. In connection with 10th year anniversary Alytus art exhibition was organized in Cesis and vice mayor of Alytus city council Nijole Makštutiene and group of artists and musicians on 9th of September visited Cesis and participated at the opening ceremony. The exhibition will be seen until 4th October. Artists from Cesis region were invited to Alytus to participate in the art exhibition on the 23rd September as well.

Innovation Circle Network Annual conference will be organised 30th November - 1st December this year in cooperation with the Trans-in-Form project. The event is titled “Innovation through new governance and rural-urban partnerships". The topic is particularly interesting to all the countries facing governance reforms these days. And the question of cooperation is always an issue to places seeking for attractiveness, competitiveness and international involvement. The conference will also focus on the Trans-in-Form project where IC network is a co-partner and will present the key issues within project concept. Download the preliminary program!

26-27 March there was a kick off conference in Cesis(LV) for the ”Vidzeme Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. The project is financed by the EEA grants (Norwegian financial mechanism). The project is aiming at opening a center for innovation and entrepreneurship in Cesis city. The total budget is about 1,5 mill. Euro.

Cēsis, Rīga and Liepāja continues the competition to get the title of European capital of culture 2014 - that was decision made by the international jury that evaluated all conceptions submitted by Cesis, Riga, Liepāja and Jūrmala.

Since 1990s Cesis region and Østfold County in Norway have been cooperating in various levels and projects. The first cooperation agreement was signed in January 2001. In order to keep up the well working cooperation, partners signed the new cooperation agreement on 9-10th December in Hvaler, Norway.

Two Cities that have been partners of IC network from the very beginning are keeping on cooperation. Mysen in Norway and Cesis in Latvia developed a very close relationship and is initiating new projects again and again. This time their focus was based on learning about social and cultural issues, work environment. People with special needs were involved into the project.

The PURR project appplication was submitted to ESPON yesterday. Notodden Municipality as Lead Stakeholder together with Cesis District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Welsh Assembly Government and Dumfries and Galloway Council. The idea is to reserach the territorial potential of the areas and to build up a database. There will also be a possibilty for researching a wider area connected to the IC network and also disseminate the findings within the network.

The board of Innovation Circle Network elected in Cesis 2009 :
Mr. Alf S. Johansen – Network secretary (Norway)
Ms. Rita Merca – Board chairman (Latvia)
Ms. Ewelina Suchocka – Board member (Poland)
Ms. Mudite Priede - Board member (Latvia)
Mr. Mike Noren – Board member (Sweden)
Mr. Svein Aage Lauritzen – Board member(Norway)
Mr. Donatas Pilinkus – Board member (Lithuania)
Ms. Olga Kozyreva - Board member (Russia)

21st September was the day when the Innovation Circle Network was established. Representatives from 12 Innovation Circle project partners attended the meeting and some new partners were invited as well. The Network board was elected choosing a representative from each country taking part in IC. For the time being 6 countries are represented in the board, though the network is open for new partners.

Cesis is located in the North-East part of Latvia, 90 km from Riga. In geographical terms it is one of the biggest districts in Latvia and it has a population of 57 228 (2006), with 18 504 residing in the City of Cesis. Cesis District is one of the most active regions in Latvia in means of entrepreneurship with more than 4500 registered companies (2005). A great deal of these are farms and other agricultural and forestal enterprises, but there are also other manifacturing and alimentary companies and even a couple of breweries. Even though agriculture continues to be an important part of the district´s economy, tourism is a rapidly growing sector.