Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen to Washington and New York
Press release 234/2008
27 June, 2008
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will visit Washington and New York from 30 June to 3 July. In Washington Väyrynen will meet with American political leaders and high-level civil servants, the President of the World Bank and Finns working at the World Bank. The minister will also meet with think tank representatives and will have talks about the US presidential election situation.
The topics of the meetings are current trade and development policy issues such as the situation concerning the WTO Doha negotiation round, matters pertaining to bilateral trade, climate change and the food crisis as well as preparations for the large development conferences of 2008. The aim is also to discuss means for intensifying cooperation on development policy issues between Finland and the United States.
In New York Väyrynen will attend the Annual Ministerial Review of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The theme of the meeting is “Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development”. The progress made in attaining the UN Millennium Development Goals, in particular, will figure prominently in the discussions. At the meeting Väyrynen will also present the general principles and projects of Finland’s development policy on the basis of the country’s National Voluntary Report (NVP). Finland has asked the United Kingdom and Tanzania to be so-called Friends of the NVP, whose purpose will be to comment on the Finnish programme. Correspondingly, Finland will act as a Friend of the NVP when the programmes of Tanzania and Luxembourg are discussed.
The high-level Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) will also be organised in connection with the ECOSOC meeting. Väyrynen will be the moderator of a panel during the Forum. The panel will discuss South–South and triangular development cooperation. Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 2005, the Forum is now being organised for the first time; it will focus on the effectiveness and coherence of development cooperation.
Finland will also take part in the Innovation Fair arranged within the framework of ECOSOC; the theme of the Fair is sustainable development. Information about Finland’s public and private-sector projects linked with sustainable development will be distributed at the Fair.
Additional information: Päivi Nevala, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, tel. +358 9 1605 6171 or mobile tel. +358 40 753 4375; Deputy Director General Päivi Luostarinen (Washington), tel. +358 9 1605 5694 or mobile tel. +358 40 703 2345; Head of Unit Riitta Oksanen (DCF), tel. +358 9 1605 6283 or mobile tel. +358 40 728 4023; and Jarl-Håkan Rosengren (ECOSOC), tel. +358 9 1605 5534 or mobile tel. +358 40 354 7549