Dear President, members and friends,

I have a great pleasure to invite you to the  next AER General Assembly, which will take place in Tampere, Tampere Region, Finland on 12.-15. November 2008.

Tampere Region is the second urban region in Finland with a population of over 470.000. It is an active and prosperous European information society where you can find both, the energetic pace of city life and the luxuriance of the pure countryside. Tampere Region is an innovative and attractive environment for business, living, working and studying, as well as leisure activities.

Tampere city is a modern cultural city of over 200,000 inhabitants. It is a centre of education, research, high technology and world-class businesses. Tampere is also a major congress city in Finland which attracts hundreds of conferences each year.

Tampere region and mainly our capital Tampere has experienced a major change in its economic structures. We could say that Tampere has been made out of cotton and linen -  it has a strong  industrial background. With a purposeful aim to develop itself and a capability and courage to take risks Tampere and Tampere region has been able to become a strong and modern competitive and knowledge based region with a top know-how number of technology fields. International collaboration is part of our daily lives. We built our future also in collaboration with EU and appreciate all liaisons and partnerships with other regions and international actors.

We sincerely hope that the participants of the AER General Assembly of 2008 will enjoy their stay in Tampere and find some interesting matters to discuss with us in the future.

With these words Tampere Region and I warmly welcome all AER member regions and participants to Tampere, Finland next year.

Mr Risto Koivisto
The President of the Tampere Region