Transport strategy for the region A special feature will be the development of a Barents Transport Strategy: Businesses, residents and tourists all continue to struggle with getting around and about in the Barents Region. In addition, the demand for the many valuable mineral deposits in the Region is really putting the lack of transport and logistics in the Barents Region at the very forefront of priorities. A Barents business meeting in June, 2011, concluded that many potential business deals in the Region never get a change because of the poor infrastructure. Karolina Banul, intern at the International Barents Secretariat in Kirkenes this year, speaks for many when she says that “traveling to and around the Barents Region is not as easy as in other parts of Europe. As a temporary citizen of Kirkenes, I put a lot of effort in to find out suitable transport to places like: Tromsø, Petrozavodsk or Rovaniemi. The problem is not only distances, which demands a lot of hours driving, but also logistics and synchronization between different means of transport within one county as well as across the borders.” The regional level of the Barents Cooperation is working on coming together on a transport strategy finding long term solutions east-west as well as north-south bound transport. BarentSaga hopes to look closer into this in future issues.