17.2.12
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on 16 February. During the meeting held at the U.S. Department of State, the Foreign Minister and the Secretary of State discussed a number of issues, focusing on the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran and North Africa.
17.2.12
The Government adopted on 16 February, the new Finnish Development Policy Action Plan. The action plan reforms the Finnish development policy and cooperation to meet the needs of the changed world and the future, and help countries detach themselves from aid dependency. Development policy has become more and more distinctively global cooperation, where various types of new actors are yielding influence as well. For Finland, the key objective is wide-ranging and value-based cooperation that ensures meeting the needs of the weakest.
15.2.12
In a report published on 15th February 2012, Mr Jorma Eloranta presented his proposal for Finland's investment strategy and an action plan. These are intended to improve the basis for attracting investment to Finland, in order to bolster the country's competitiveness and develop its business sector. The report includes five main theses and 40 related proposals for measures to rapidly improve the situation.
Corporate investment is vital to Finland's economic performance. Rapid, concerted measures are need in response, in order to make Finland more attractive to companies looking to invest.
15.2.12
According to Minister of Housing and Communications Ms Krista Kiuru, joint action should be taken with operators in the ICT field to make Finland a new centre for the cloud computing industry.
'Finland's future economic growth is found in the production and use of digital services taking place on a much larger scale than presently. This idea can be well summarised with the words 'growth', 'innovation', 'digital services' and 'evolution', Ms Kiuru said at the Communications Forum held in Helsinki on 15 February.
