The new Secretary-General of the OECD Àngel Gurría visiting Finland
Press release 383/2006
26 September, 2006
Àngel Gurría, who started his five-year term as the new Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD on 1 June, will be visiting Finland on 27-29 September. The Secretary-General will be arriving to Finland at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paula Lehtomäki, and during his visit he will have bilateral meetings with the highest state leaders of Finland, and give speeches at two EU events.
Secretary-General Gurría will meet President of the Republic Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Paavo Lipponen, Minister of Finance Eero Heinäluoma, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, Minister of Education Antti Kalliomäki, and Minister Lehtomäki, who is responsible for coordination of OECD affairs. The Secretary-General will also have discussions with President of Sitra Esko Aho, leaders of the Confederation of Finnish Industries, and representatives of Nokia.
The purpose of the bilateral talks is to discuss the OECD's global role from the point of view of both economy and society, and particularly the question how the organisation is going to answer the challenges of globalisation, and how the Finns feel it should be done.
Secretary-General Gurría will give an address at the Quality Conference for Public Administrations in the European Union at Tampere on 27 September. The conference will be chaired by Minister Ulla-Maj Wideroos. The Secretary-General will also speak in Helsinki at an event, organised by the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, where the chairmen of parliamentary foreign affairs and development cooperation committees from EU member states will meet each other on 28 September.
Additional information: Counsellor Vesa Hölttä, Department for External Economic Relations, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, gsm +358 40 527 4903. OECD website can be found at http://www.oecd.org(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window).