Address by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the Estonian-Finnish Business Seminar in Helsinki, 14 March 2007

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It gives me great pleasure to address this business meeting between Estonia and Finland. For Finns, Estonia is traditionally a very close and familiar partner. Estonia’s EU membership nearly three years ago has further deepened our relations in many respects.

Estonia’s economic success and growing well-being is also in the interests of Finland. Estonia is an attractive market area and our tenth most important trading partner – more important than all the other new EU Member States together. Statistics show that Finland is Estonia’s most important trading partner, and the Finns are second only to the Swedes as investors in Estonia.

Estonia is the other home market for many Finnish companies, and for many the first step towards international markets. Finnish companies continue to be interested in operating in Estonia. By the end of 2006, about 3,700 Finnish businesses had activities in your country. Around twenty Estonian companies operate in Finland as yet, but we believe that more are coming.

What is still an almost completely unexplored field, however, is the potential for Finnish-Estonian joint ventures in third countries.

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Today, people can move freely across the Gulf of Finland – an opportunity that is keenly utilized. Many even commute across the sea. In both countries, we are forced to consider ways of keeping enough skilful and trained people at the disposal of our own labour markets. The ageing population is a particular challenge for the future; this is a challenge that we in Finland will be facing before you do.

In Estonia, the worsening labour shortage is partly due to the fact that young people in particular want to exercise their right of free movement and go off to other EU Member States. Studying and working abroad is a useful experience for young people themselves and for society as a whole. But youth is also a time for building a life, and in many cases for starting a family – and a surprising number of those who thought they were going abroad only temporarily have instead chosen to stay there permanently. Estonia and Finland should consider also together what to do about this.

Finland and the other Nordic countries have founded their systems on the Nordic welfare state model, where stability is based on strong democracy and social justice. This combines the interests of both the individual and the community. The Nordic countries have reason for being satisfied with their success in many international comparisons of competitiveness. Our education systems have also been judged to be among the best in the OECD, and we have comprehensive social security systems. Our environmental protection, too, is assessed highly in international comparisons. In my view, the success of these Nordic siblings shows that a free market economy and good competitiveness on the one hand and social justice and environmental protection on the other do not need to be mutually exclusive – as a matter of fact, they complement each other.

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The Baltic Sea is part of our common identity. We should thus promote development of the Baltic region and the international attractiveness of our shared market area. Personally, I would like to see our science and research cooperation increase and intensify. We have already made a good start. In the bilateral science and innovation cooperation between Finland and Estonia, mutual benefit is the key. Acting together, two small countries have a better chance of making themselves heard in multilateral cooperation.

The Baltic economic area – comprised of the areas close to the Baltic Sea – has an estimated population of about 100 million. Regional cooperation between the nine countries bordering the Sea and with the neighbouring areas is an opportunity not to be missed.

I believe that the Baltic region can benefit from the Northern Dimension policy and from close relations between the EU and Russia. The Northern Dimension is a project shared by all those party to it – EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Russia and the European Commission. Its success depends on all of us being active. Involvement is possible at the national, regional or local level, in business, or within civil society in general. The aim is to strengthen stability, well-being, competitiveness and sustainable development throughout northern Europe.

In addition to the wellbeing of people, we need to see to the wellbeing of the environment. The 90 million people who live in the catchment area of the Baltic Sea constitute a substantial burden on the natural environment. A clean Baltic is our shared goal. Environmental protection, and especially protection of the Baltic Sea, has got off to a good start within neighbouring area cooperation, and the Northern Dimension policy offers even greater potential for this. The improved waste water treatment system for the St Petersburg area is a good example not only of international cooperation but also of a new awakening to environmental protection among the Russians themselves. Even so, rooting a new environmental protection culture firmly in all the Baltic countries calls still for hard work.

Investment in environmental issues and the state of the Baltic is particularly important as we try to increase the economic significance of the region. My hope is that the business sector will contribute actively also to these efforts. Marine safety and transportation and environment issues are all good examples of matters where the best result is achieved by working together. In marine safety, the trilateral ship reporting system (GOFREP) is already in operation on the Gulf of Finland by Estonia, Finland and Russia.

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Globalization increases competition but also brings new opportunities. We must develop the Baltic area as a European regional growth centre where dynamic and competitive economies, investment in education and innovation, and human and environmental well-being go hand in hand. Cooperation brings prosperity.

I wish your business seminar the best of success!