The international border station in Niirala, Värtsilä, is Finlands third busiest border station. The bottle necks in the increasing of cross-border business activities in the region of Central Karelia – Sortavala include lack of land available for business purposes, lack of various services supporting business and border activities, the limited character of the border activities and organisation of the financing for infrastructure needed to support business activities. The Karelian Passage project in co-operation with authorities and entrepreneurs will analyse the needs of the business life and community economy and plan the land use based on these viewpoints. The project will result in drawing up of a joint land use plan of the Central Karelia – Sortavala to promote facilities for enterpreneurship. Achievements: A land-use oriented overall understanding was formed during the project regarding how a border crossing point functions, what type of development prospects border operations have at the Vrtsil-Niirala border crossing, and how its development activities should be continued. The project created a report containing a plan which evaluated the development of the area from the land-use perspective as well as more extensively for future zoning use of municipalities. In order to increase land-use co-operation, a regular operational link was also established with the management of the Town of Sortavala. During the project, commercial and residential activities as well as the transport development prerequisites were assessed in particular, primarily in the region between Onkamo and Sortavala. The project also researched the possibility of increasing the border regions appeal, in particular from the central Karelian perspective, and created an operational plan in order to increase the attractiveness and continue the positive growth of the area. Co-operation (border crosser study, seminars, negotiations) with the border crossing service centre also created an understanding of the expectations of industry and how the development of industry in the border region is ensured. The project highlighted the operational problems at the border crossing; therefore, principle guidelines, propositions and operational recommendations were made in order to solve them. One of the central issues in the research was the road network, its safety, the seamless flow of traffic and how the main road could be developed into a highway as well as the development of the city depending on it.