Foreign Trade and Development Minister Lehtomäki to Brazil and UNCTAD conference

The minister for foreign trade and development Paula Lehtomäki will visit Brazil, 9-17 June to take part in the ministerial conference linked to the 11th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Minister Lehtomäki’s programme in Brazil will start in Rio de Janeiro, where she will meet representatives of Finnish business, get acquainted with EU development work and meet with the head of the Brazilian Development Bank Carlos Lessan.

The minister will then travel to São Paulo for the UNCTAD session, 13-18 June. The main aim of the conference is to discuss key issues concerning trade and development. The forum will focus on improving the competitiveness and production capacity of developing countries.

UNCTAD was founded in 1964 to promote the integration of developing countries in the world economy. The ministerial conferences of the organisation are held every four years and are UNCTAD’s highest decision making body.

In its preparations for the session, Finland is drawing attention to the viewpoints of least developed countries on key trade issues as well as the need to strengthen their competitiveness and production capacity. Finland is also stressing issues of gender and equality, and environmental viewpoints. Finnish and EU priorities at the UNCTAD session are the integration of trade and investment in national development programmes and strategies to alleviate poverty.

Lehtomäki will take part in a high level roundtable discussion on trade and poverty, which will be held on the first day of the conference. Finland has put much emphasis on the issue in its preparations for the session, and in May funded the organisation of an UNCTAD and World Bank Institute conference in Geneva on trade and poverty for representatives of developing countries.

A meeting on the Helsinki Process, the Finnish-Tanzanian initiative on governing globalisation, will also be held in São Paulo in connection with the UNCTAD session. Jakaya Kikwete the Tanzanian foreign minister and co-chair of the ‘Helsinki Group’ and Minister Lehtomäki will address the event.

Further information: Deputy Director General Taisto Huimasalo (UNCTAD), tel: +358 40 759 8816, Counsellor for Development Cooperation Ilari Rantakari (Helsinki Process), tel: +358 40 709 4245, and Press Attaché Anna Tonttila (for details of Minister Lehtomäki’s programme and interview requests), tel: +358 40 5131 669.