ASEM Summit on September 2006

The Asia–Europe ASEM Summit, to be organised during Finland’s EU Presidency, will be held in Helsinki on 10 and 11 September 2006. The date of the meeting was changed because the meeting of neutral countries held in Havanna on 15 and 16 September.


Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen represented Finland in the ASEM Summit last October in Hanoi.

According to a decision made by the Cabinet Committee in January, the meeting was to be held in Tampere. However, because of the meeting's exceptional size and requirements set by it, reasons relating to practical arrangements lead to a decision to relocate the meeting to Helsinki.

The ASEM Summit is expected to attract some 1 600 attendants, 650 representatives of the media and 400 representatives of the organisers. The total number of people at the event is estimated at 4 500 when the police and other support personnel needed in the Summit is added up.

These figures do not include the attendants of the Business Forum and the People's Forum that are organised in connection with the Summit. Exclusive of premises needed for the police and the connected events, the number of hotel rooms needed is estimated at some 2800, which exceeds the estimate made in January.

Better changes of centralising the meeting facilities and to guarantee successful arrangements, even if the number of attendants would grow, contributed to the decision to change the venue.

The sixth ASEM Summit is also a ten-year anniversary meeting. At least 39 official delegations from Europe and Asia will attend the meeting.







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