Working group to develop Team Finland operations
Minister of Economic Affairs Olli Rehn established a working group on 6 October 2016 with the task of forming a proposal for the development and clarification of Team Finland’s operations. The working group also has the task of making proposals on possible new operating model as well as organisational and resource changes.
-From the business point of view, the Team Finland system is increasingly seen as too fragmented. The task of the working group is to assess how closer cooperation between actors could further improve the internationalisation services being offered to businesses. This is a natural extension of the new domestic service model, which operates on the one-stop-shop principle and has received positive feedback, explains Minister Rehn.
The chairman of the working group is Permanent Secretary Jari Gustafsson (Ministry of Employment and the Economy) and the members are Special Advisor Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen (Prime Minister’s Office), Director-General Markku Keinänen (Ministry for Foreign Affairs), CEO Jyri Häkämies (Confederation of Finnish Industries) and CEO Mikeal Pentikäinen (Federation of Finnish Enterprises).
The working group will listen to Team Finland’s customers and stakeholder groups from a number of sectors including export, internationalisation, foreign investment and travel and tourism. At the same time, the working group will take into account the equivalent operating models in use in a control group of key countries.
-The goal is to bind all the Team Finland actors, including the international networks, closer together in the promotion of growth and international business growth. Good international examples can be found. Ireland, for example, is a country where innovation and internationalisation services comprise a more coherent whole, says Minister Rehn.
The establishment of the working group furthers the implementation of the strategy outlined in the Government Programme of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s Government. The key project ‘Strengthening competitiveness by improving conditions for business and entrepreneurship’ contains the goal of strengthening the Team Finland network by building closer cooperation.
Further information:
Jari Gustafsson, Permanent Secretary, MEE, tel. +358 29 504 7400
Jannika Ranta, Special Adviser to the Minister of Economic Affairs, tel. +358 50 340 2250