Minister for International Development Paatero and Minister of the Interior Räsänen to make a Team Finland export promotion visit to the United States
Press Release 247/2014
7 November 2014
Minister for International Development SirpaPaatero and Minister of the Interior PäiviRäsänen will visit New York and Washington from 9 to 12 November, accompanied by a large Finnish business delegation. The participating Finnish enterprises are highly knowledgeable and experienced players in the development and crisis business.
The aim of the Team Finland visit, organized in cooperation with Finpro, is to promote the possibilities for Finnish enterprises and research institutions to participate in the procurement and programmes of UN agencies, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. The United Nations has revised its procurement activities. The participation of enterprises in the bidding competitions of UN actors has been facilitated by the establishment of the UN Global Marketplace, a global network service containing announcements of tendering competitions and participation instructions.
In 2013, the United Nations system of organizations made procurements worth a total of 16.1 billion dollars. Procurements from Finland came to 33.3 million dollars, which represents only 0.21 per cent of all procurements. However, the total amount of procurements from Finland has increased clearly since 2009. In particular, medical and security sector products, generators, as well as administrative, transport and engineering services have been procured from Finland.
The World Bank provides export opportunities for an annual total of about 40 billion dollars and investment opportunities for about 20 billion dollars. During the period 2008–2014, Finnish enterprises have been involved in 70 projects whose total value comes to about 1.8 billion dollars. The projects have been concentrated in the energy and mining sectors. The Inter-American Development Bank offers annual opportunities for exports worth about 4 billion dollars.
In New York the ministers will take part in a UN procurement seminar and will meet, among others, Yukio Takasu, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Management, the management of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the UN operational development organizations, and they will become familiar with the UN corporate sector cooperation.
In Washington the ministers will meet, among others, the sector management of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank Executive Vice-President Julie Katzman. In addition, the ministers have meetings with representatives of the US administration.
Additional information: In the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Director General Riikka Laatu, mobile tel. +358 40 351 1703, and Special Adviser Sonja Kekkonen, mobile tel. +358 50 311 1828; in the Ministry of the Interior, Special Adviser Sonja Falk, mobile tel. +358 50 530 4137 and Senior Adviser Katarine Lindstedt, mobile tel. +358 50 342 2825; and in the Ministry of Employment and the Economy Director, Professor Kirsti Loukola-Ruskeeniemi, tel. +358 29 506 0080