NordenBladet – Matka Workshop Day was held on 17 January 2018 at the Nordic Travel Fair MATKA 2018 and it included two events: Meet Finland and Global Workshop. This B2B matchmaking event brought together travel trade professionals globally seeking to connect with key contacts and to facilitate business deals.
The event was an excellent forum to learn about possibilities for expanding business activities with Finnish and international tour operators, travel agencies and online agents. NordenBladet will bring you the exclusive gallery about this event.
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Find pictures about MATKA 2018 workshop day also from our Instagram: @Estella.Elisheva and @helenareetennet Instagramist:
NordenBladet — The new visual identity of the Foreign Service conveys the message of an organisation that operates in a stable manner in a turbulent world and that works to make the world a better place. The special feature of the identity is the innovative utilisation of the logo in the visualisation of data.
The new visual identity of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic missions is being taken into use on 18 January. The Global Cycles concept of the new identity illustrates an internationally credible, agile and innovative actor that operates in a stable manner and exerts influence in a tumultuous world. The undulations of the globe-shaped basic blue logo denote things that affect Finland and that Finland can influence through the Foreign Service. The identity is designed to be flexible for different uses and adapts to both dignified representation and marketing-oriented needs.
In a digital world the logo becomes functional
The globe image, a key element of the new visual identity, functions dynamically in digital environments. A specific user interface capable of receiving real-time data signals has been built for the globe of the logo. This enables the Foreign Service to communicate in a new way about themes important to it, and to visualise different aspects of world events. The dynamic logo can react, for instance, to statistics or sound. At the launch of the visual identity at the travel fair Matka 2018, the new feature is utilised to visualise travel information on a hemisphere bigger than two metres.
The functionality of the Foreign Service’s new visual identity is a concrete illustration of innovativeness and Finnish technological know-how. It also highlights the active nature of Finland’s foreign policy. The new visual identity was designed by Mikael Kivelä, Head of Design at the design agency 358, on the basis of the goals created jointly by the staff.
NordenBladet — Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will visit Madrid from 17 to 19 January. During his visit, Minister Soini will meet the Spanish Foreign Minister, Alfonso Dastis, and hold a lecture on security questions in Europe at the International Affairs and Foreign Policy Institute (INCIPE).
The main objective of the visit is to develop dialogue on key foreign and security policy matters and to advance bilateral cooperation in commercial and economic and EU questions. The topics on the agenda of the ministerial visit will include the future of the EU, mediation, the future of the Baltic Sea, and the EU’s neighbourhood and migration.
NordenBladet — Titta Andersson-Bohren has been appointed to work as Special Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen, starting from 1 February. Titta Andersson-Bohren, 33, has a Master of Social Sciences degree from the University of Tampere and a Master of Russian and Eurasian Studies from the European University at St Petersburg.
She has previously worked, for example, in the Sales and Marketing Department of Würth Group in Finland, as an Adviser in EU matters at a communications consultancy company in Brussels, and as an Assistant of a Member of the European Parliament.
Tuomas Rautanen will continue as Minister Mykkänen’s Special Adviser together with Andersson-Bohren.
NordenBladet — The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) will have a joint stand at the Travel Fair 2018, to be held at the Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki from 18 to 21 January 2018. They can be visited at stand 6s61.
How can I travel safely the Madventures’ way and avoid running into the kind of difficulties that Turakainen does? Why is it important that I register my travel details with the Foreign Ministry? What precautions should I take to stay in good health when travelling? Can I avoid jet lag?
At the joint stand of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and THL you will get answers to these and other questions related to travelling. Experts in travel safety and travel health will offer useful tips for safe travelling and practical guidance for difficult situations. Riku Rantala and Tunna Milonoff, the Madventures duo, will host a discussion on travelling and share their best practices on how to prepare for a trip. Experts in emergency and crisis situations will clarify what Finland’s diplomatic missions can do to help Finnish citizens in distress abroad.
At the Travel Fair, you may also take part in a quiz and test how smart a traveller you are. Additionally, safe travelling will be the first topic of a podcast series (named Suomi mainittu!) to be launched by the Foreign Ministry just before the Travel Fair. The first podcast will feature Raimo Pahkasalo, Finland’s Consul in Ba ngkok, and Hanna-Liisa Peltoniemi, Desk Officer in the Unit for Consular Affairs of the Foreign Ministry.
NordenBladet — The chairs of the Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation will meet in Moscow on 16 January. The Economic Commission will be co-chaired by Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitri Kozak.
“Trade between Finland and Russia is developing favourably. At the same time, Russia’s tightening import substitution policy causes problems, and several separate challenges need to be discussed, such as a possible export ban on birch logs to be imposed by Russia. I intend to discuss the situation with Deputy Prime Minister Kozak and to help in reaching a solution to the problems,” Minister Mykkänen says.
In Moscow, Mykkänen will also attend the Gaidar Forum. The Forum is an annual event, convened to discuss the economic situation in Russia and the trends in world economy. It gathers together experts in economic questions and opinion leaders from different countries. Minister Mykkänen will hold a speech in the main panel discussion of the Forum. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will also speak at the event.
Mykkänen will also visit Finnish companies in Moscow and hold discussions with Russia’s Minister for Economic Development Maksim Oreshkin.
The aim of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation is to support Finnish and Russian companies’ business opportunities and to promote the commercial and economic relations between Finland and Russia. It consists of fifteen sectoral working groups and nine regional working groups. At the meeting, the chairs will handle, for example, questions related to trade, energy cooperation and the business environment in Russia. The chairs will also discuss challenges encountered by individual Finnish companies in Russia.
The trade between Finland and Russia has been on the increase starting from the end of 2016. Russia is the sixth most important destination of Finnish exports and second among the most important countries of Finnish imports. The value of Finnish investments in Russia is approximately EUR 12 billion.
Trade with Russia is subject to the economic sanctions imposed by the EU and Russia’s counter-sanctions. The EU sanctions are aligned to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
NordenBladet — Following Finland’s centenary celebrations, This is FINLAND Magazine 2018–2019, the annual English-language publication showcasing Finnish expertise and experts, is turning its gaze far ahead into the future.
The magazine, which is distributed at Finland’s missions and especially in potential export markets and at export events through the Team Finland network, describes what the future may look like. It presents Finnish artificial intelligence expertise in fields such as healthcare and education, explains what Linda Liukas, Finland’s ambassador of coding, thinks about technology as a medium of self-expression, and introduces the basic income trial and its impact on the life of the participants.
The other theme chosen by the magazine is Finnish daily life, the best in the world. Anu Partanen, the author of The Nordic Theory of Everything, explains in her column what smooth daily life is like and Finnish people tell about their everyday sources of joy. We also investigated how people who have moved to Finland from abroad find Finnish working life.
How does Finland succeed in providing top-level education, a safe society and good opportunities for combining work and free time? It is all thanks to our education system, which teaches the Finns to solve problems at both local and global levels, writes Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education.
The publication is targeted at international readers and aims at providing inspiring perspectives on Finnish expertise, innovations, education and way of life, as part of country branding. The magazine is distributed globally through the distribution channels of the editorial board and will also be published in German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian in March.
”Versatile tools are required in practical country branding. When we meet people in person, it is often not enough just to give them a web address that they can go to. We have to be able to offer something more concrete and in several languages,” says Petra Theman, Director of the Unit for Public Diplomacy from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. “I am especially grateful and proud that we have been able to produce this publication together with the expert organisations representing Finnish know-how and innovations.”
This is FINLAND Magazine is published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Business Finland, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Finnish National Agency for Education. Otavamedia OMA is responsible for the production of the magazine.
NordenBladet — Minister for Nordic Cooperation Anne Berner has invited Master of Laws Kimmo Sasi to represent Finland in the Freedom of Movement Council, a body under the Nordic Council of Ministers, for the years 2018 and 2019. Each of the Nordic countries and the Åland Islands, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have one member in the Freedom of Movement Council. Risto E. J. Penttilä, CEO of the Finland Chamber of Commerce, was Finland’s representative from 2015 until 2017.
The Freedom of Movement Council started its activities in 2014. The Nordic governments set it up to promote freedom of movement in the Nordic region for private people and companies by means of revising regulations and practices that hamper movement of people or cross-border activities of companies in the Nordic countries. Thanks to the work of the Freedom of Movement Council, several cross-border barriers affecting the labour market and the social and education sectors have been removed.
Sasi has served in the Nordic Council of Ministers and in the Nordic Council in the period1987–2015, and he held the Presidency of the Nordic Council in 2012.
NordenBladet – The busy tourist season is boosting food deliveries, with an international clientele demanding dishes familiar from home. The rapid growth of tourism in Finnish Lapland and the culinary tastes of international visitors have led to a spike in food deliveries on northern roads. The volume of wholesale deliveries has risen by a third over the past year.
This winter some 600 charter flights are bringing guests to Finnish Lapland and nearby Kuusamo from various European airports. At Kuusamo airport, the number of incoming leisure flights nearly doubled in December compared to a year earlier.
Some locals find it odd that tourists come from Britain and Asia all the way to Lapland, but prefer to eat their own familiar cuisine rather than Lapland’s own signature dishes, says Soile Lehtilahti, regional sales director for wholesaler Metro-tukku. However shops on Spain’s Costa del Sol, cater to Finnish tourists by selling imported rye bread and liquorice, for instance.
Metro-tukku delivers food, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes to Lapland’s tourist resorts from its main warehouse in Helsinki, with northerly terminals in Kemi and Rovaniemi. It is just one of many such firms servicing the ski centres of Finnish Lapland.
Lehtilahti explains that tour operators set the menus for foreign groups. Lapland’s restaurants strictly follow these as they place their wholesale orders. British tourists are served British dishes, while Asians are served their own.
These menus are critical to the pricing of group tours. Operators can keep package rates low by serving familiar, middle-of-the-road foods to each group rather than exotic Nordic offerings such as salmon, reindeer or bear.
NordenBladet – Finland made positive decisions on 40 percent of all asylum applicants in 2017, up from 27 percent in 2016. According to preliminary figures from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), 40 percent of the processed applications for asylum last year were positive, compared with 27 percent in 2016.
Decisions by Finland’s administrative courts on the security situation in Baghdad and Mogadishu, for example, have had an impact on the application outcome.
“They have had an effect on how our decisions change,” says Esko Repo from Migri.
However there are other reasons for the increase, Repo adds. In 2016, Migri mostly processed quick and easy applications, many of which were rejected as the applicants had no grounds for protection. Only in 2017 did Migri move on to the more challenging applications, where the decisions more often turned out to be positive, he explains.
Finally, Migri’s own evaluation about the security situation in different countries has caused an uptick. “For instance, there are more areas in Afghanistan where the conditions have deteriorated”, Repo says. The number of applications that Migri dealt with in 2016 totalled 28,000, falling to 9,400 last year.
The number of new applications Migri received each year amounted to about 5,000, with the most coming from Iraqis. Applications from Russians increased from the previous year, Repo says.
