Aid for Trade is effective in Finland's strong sectors
Press release 113/2016
10 June 2016
Finland's Aid for Trade has produced good results especially in sectors in which Finland has competitive advantages. Examples of these include water, energy, environment, ICT and innovations, as well as forestry and fisheries.
Finnfund's (Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation) investment portfolio shows good results particularly when measured by employment creation. Instead, the impact of the business partnership support provider Finnpartnership has remained limited. This is concluded in an external evaluation of Finland's AFT, completed recently.
Based on the evaluation, Finland's AFT projects have stimulated private sector activities in the partner countries, but Finnish companies' participation in business activities in these countries is still at a modest level. Finland's AFT Action Plan (AFT-AP) has not provided guidance to the practical implementation of projects. There is room for improvement in projects' coordination as well.
"I agree with the findings of the evaluation in that the participation of private sector actors and interaction between stakeholders engaged in AFT work must be strengthened," Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka says.
"It is also very important to ensure that the Finnish embassies have sufficient resources for the promotion of economic cooperation in those partner countries in which development cooperation will gradually be replaced by other forms of cooperation."
The evaluation assessed Finland's activities on the basis of the AFT-AP, prepared in 2012. Case studies on Finnfund and Finnpartnership were also included in the evaluation.
The conduct of the evaluation was assigned to FCG Finnish Consulting Group. The international evaluation group consisting of four members was led by Frans van Gerwen. A public presentation of the results was organised on Friday 10 June 2016.
Inquiries: Jyrki Pulkkinen, Director, Development Evaluation Unit, tel. +358 295 350 978.