Ministry for Foreign Affairs to reform its organisation
Press release 299/2008
25 August, 2008
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is increasing the efficiency of its organisation and leadership. From the beginning of September, the number of departments will be decreased from twelve to eight and at the same time, units will be merged. The greatest change is a holistic new services segment combining administrative services, legal services, protocol services and a new entity for citizens’ services, i.e. Consul, passport, visa and immigration related tasks that used to be handled by the Legal Department.
The purpose of the reform is to intensify handling of the Ministry’s core functions while simultaneously responding to the savings objectives of the productivity programme for the State administration.
Tasks carried out by the Global Department will be distributed among the Political Department, the Department for External Economic Relations and the Department for Development Cooperation. A specific aim is to intensify coordination of EU affairs and activities in international organisations, and to improve coherence in the handling of various issue in different forums.
Besides organisational development, the network of Finland’s foreign missions and its focal points are being studied. The study is being conducted in a project, contained in the Government’s Programme, that is also investigating the demands for the foreign missions’ services made by the authorities, business and citizens. The goal is achieve further efficiency in cooperation between foreign missions and other organisations operating abroad that receive considerable public financing.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs in the spotlight
As part of its 90th anniversary celebrations, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs under reform will hold a citizens’ reception in a fair tent erected at Merikasarmi, in the Katajanokka district of Helsinki, on Thursday, 28 August from 13.00 to 19.00 hrs. Visitors at the event will have the opportunity to learn about the activities of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and to meet ambassadors and other representatives of the Ministry. The assorted services and departments of the Ministry will be presented at display tables.
The programme of the citizens’ event and the times when the ambassadors and heads of department will be available are posted in Finnish on the website(Link to another website.) of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
New postal addresses
The organisational reform will also bring changes in postal addresses. Like other Ministries, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will start to use the post code 00023 Government. As from 1 September, the postal address of the Registry office of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which is the address used for all official documents posted, will be: Ministry for Foreign Affairs, P.O. Box 176, 00023 Government.
For other correspondence, the post box addresses created for the Ministry’s facilities can be used. Post box addresses have also been created for the foreign missions.
Additional information: Secretary of State Pertti Torstila, tel. +358 9 1605 5010, and Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Antti Sierla (Under-Secretary of State as from 1 September), tel. +358 9 1605 5437 (from 1 September tel. +358 9 1605 5020), email: [email protected]