Foreign Ministry's draft budget for 2011
Press Release 257/2010
10 September 2010
Administrative branch appropriations for the Foreign Ministry amount to 1,257.4 million euros in the draft budget for 2011. The 2011 social impact objectives are in line with the Ministry's strategy.
In the draft budget, the proposed operating expenses are 199.4 million euros, of which 2.6 million euros are earmarked for strengthening administration in development cooperation. The foreign service productivity programme will be continued in 2011 with a target of reducing 27 person-workyears from the branch operations.
The proposed allocation for the maintenance of Finnish crisis management troops is 58.3 million euros and for the civilian contribution to crisis management 18.3 million euros. It is estimated that the number of hired personnel involved in military and civilian crisis management operations will be 650 in 2011.
The sum proposed for cross-border cooperation is 15.5 million euros, This exceeds the spending limits by 2.0 million euros. Activities will focus more on promoting economic cooperation. Continuing objectives for cross-border cooperation include building of an equal partnership, and Russia is expeced to increase its financial contribution to maintain the total volume of cross-border cooperation on the level of the previous years, even if Finland decrease its share.
Central government expenditure on development cooperation in 2011 is expected to total 1,073.8 million euros, which is about 0.58 % of GNI and thus exceeds the international obligations. Finland is committed to the 0.7 percent objective by 2015 given by the European Council. Achieving the target requires a steady growth of around 0.03 percentage points over 2012-2015.
In the Foreign Ministry main division, the proposed sum on the budgetary line of Development cooperation proper is 819.9 million euros. This includes 0.4 million euros to cover the costs of a joint project with the Austrian Development Cooperation Agency; the corresponding revenue is entered under the revenue for the administrative branch. The draft budget includes an allocation of 15 million euros to increase the capital of the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund).
A total of 105.8 million euros is proposed for membership fees and financial contributions; this is 0.7 million below the spending limits. A total of 6.62 million euros is reallocated from membership fees payable to development cooperation organizations to the budgetary line of Development cooperation proper.
It is projected that the Ministry’s administrative branch will receive 1.9 million in revenue that is not included in Ministry’s operating expenses.
Further information: Risto Hakoila, Financial Director, tel. +358 9 1605 5870, and Katja Bordi, Head of Financial Planning, tel. +358 9 1605 5990; for development planning, Timo Olkkonen, Head of General Development Policy and Planning Unit, tel. +358 9 1605 6283, and Laura Pietilä, Senior Officer, tel. +358 9 1605 6234; and for cross-border cooperation, Minni Hyrkkänen, Senior Officer, tel. +358 9 1605 5610