MFA: Ministers Mykkänen and Tiilikainen to the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ministry of the Environment

Press release 103/2017
31 May 2017

Ministers Mykkänen and Tiilikainen to the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen and Minister for Housing, Energy and the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen will participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), organized on 1–3 June 2017. The Forum brings together business and economic policy leaders from different countries. Among the speakers are the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.

During the Forum Minister Mykkänen will meet the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitri Kozak. The ministers share the chairmanship of the Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation, tasked with improving the conditions for Finnish companies to operate in Russia and creating contacts between companies in both countries. On the agenda in the discussions are the matters of the working groups under the Economic Commission and the problems there may be with regard to companies and the business environment.

“Trade between Finland and Russia and numbers of visa applications by Russian tourists have started to grow in recent months. The Economic Forum and meeting of the chairs of the Economic Commission give us the chance to support this growth by seeking new opportunities and solutions to problems that we may from time to time encounter in Russia”, Minister Mykkänen says. Measured by the total volume of trade, Russia was the third most important trade partner for Finland in 2016.

In St. Petersburg Minister Mykkänen will also meet the former Russian Minister of Finance Aleksei Kudrin to talk about the Russian economy and its development. Minister Mykkänen will also visit the Okhta Mall built by SRV, learn about the operations of Atria and YIT at the Gorelovo Industrial Park, and meet several people representing Finnish companies. At the moment there are more than 400 Finnish companies in Russia and the value of Finnish investments in the country totals about EUR 12 billion.

During the Economic Forum Minister Tiilikainen will meet the Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi to discuss the management of the Krasnyi Bor hazardous waste landfill site and cooperation during Finland’s Chairmanship in the Arctic Council, which just got started. Opportunities for cooperation in the circular economy will also be examined. In addition, Minister Tiilikainen will meet representatives of the City of St. Petersburg Environment Committee and the energy company Fortum.

“I consider it most important to continue the cooperation with Russia also in the protection of the Baltic Sea. For me personally strengthening this cooperation is one of the main objectives of the whole visit. We were happy to see that environmental questions can also be discussed in connection with the Economic Forum”, Minister Tiilikainen says.

Inquiries:

Pasi Rajala, Special Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, tel. +358 400 464 393

Taru Savolainen, Special Adviser to the Minister for Housing, Energy and the Environment, tel. +358 40 535 8622

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi

The Ministry of the Environment’s email addresses are in the format frstname.lastname@ym.fi