Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen to visit Northern Norway

Press release 116/2008
7 April, 2008

Paavo Väyrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, will make an export promotion trip to Norway on 8–10 April. The minister will be accompanied by a broad delegation of more than 20 people representing businesses as well as Northern Finnish regional government and organisations, including representatives of the construction, energy, mining and environment technology sectors, the tourist industry, and research and development.

The chairman of the business delegation will be Managing Director Antti Peltoniemi of Peab Seicon Oy. The host of Minister Väyrynen’s visit on to Kirkenes on 8–9 April will be Minister of Trade and Industry Dag Terje Andersen, and in Tromsø on 10 April the host will be Minister of Foreign Trade Jonas Gahr Støre.

The purpose of the visit is to develop economic relations between Finland and Norway, and to promote investments, deepen the two countries’ cooperation with regard to the Northern Dimension objectives, develop border area cooperation and to chart opportunities for joint operations of Finnish and Norwegian businesses in Northwest Russia and the Barents Region.

Minister Väyrynen will visit the Barents Euro-Arctic Council Secretariat in Kirkenes. He will learn about projects to develop the infrastructure of the region and will have talks about envisaged cooperation with representatives of border counties. A representative of the ethnically Finnish segment of the Finnmark population will speak on Finnish culture and economic activity in the Kirkenes region.

In Tromsø, there will be presentations on the plans for utilisation of the oil and natural gas deposits of the Barents Sea, the city harbour projects and research work.

Additional information: Ossi Martikainen, Senior Adviser to the Minister, tel. +358 9 1605 6306, Director General Jorma Korhonen, Department for External Economic Relations, tel. +358 9 1605 5042, and Counsellor Hans Ottelin, Unit for Western Europe, tel. +358 9 1605 5569