Minister Väyrynen: Closer involvement of China and Russia in a rules based economic system
Press release 412/2008
30 October, 2008
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen stressed the importance of a rules based trade and investment system in cooperation between Finland, China and Russia, and in global cooperation, when he opened the two-day Finland – China – Russia Economic Forum in Helsinki on 30 October. In Väyrynen’s view, especially the financial crisis shows that national measures alone are inadequate, but that effective multilateral cooperation is needed.
According to the minister, a precondition for successful cooperation between China, Russia and Finland – both bilaterally and trilaterally – is a favourable international business environment and a rules based system that promotes trade and investments.
“The Russian economy is still heavily dependent on oil prices. In the current situation, efforts to diversify the Russian economy are even more important. Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is important not only to its own business life but also for the global economy. Finland supports Russia’s accession to the WTO and hopes that the remaining open issues between the EU and Russia will be solved at the earliest possible date,” Väyrynen said in his opening address.
“The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) also plays an important role. In 2007 Russia was nominated as a candidate for accession to the organisation and China as a partner country for enhanced engagement. Finland welcomes this development and I strongly encourage Russia and China to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the OECD,” Väyrynen continued.
In conjunction with the forum, Väyrynen also met with Sergey Katanandov, Head of the Republic of Karelia; they discussed, in particular, trade and economic relations between Finland and the Republic of Karelia as well as neighbouring area cooperation.
Additional information: Päivi Nevala, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, mobile tel. +358 40 753 4375, and Counsellor Soili Mäkeläinen-Buhanist, tel. +358 9 1605 5652