East Office, set up by Finnish industrial companies, starts handling trade with Russia
Economic seminar begins in St. Petersburg
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René Nyberg
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Mikael Lilius
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Pekka Huhtaniemi
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An three-day economic seminar starts in St. Petersburg on Thursday, bringing together the largest Russian companies, as well as some of the cream of the world economy. There are reports that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and French President Nikolas Sarkozy might close an aircraft carrier deal worth half a billion euros.
A year ago, Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen (Centre) took part in the seminar. This time, taking the place of Finnish ministerial participants will be René Nyberg, the current CEO of East Office of Finnish Industries, along with Jorma Ollila, the Chairman of the Board of Nokia, and Tapio Kuula, CEO of the energy company Fortum.
Nyberg is enthusiastic about the seminar, with its impressive list of participants, which includes a number of key industrial leaders. “Nothing like this can be found outside of Davos”, he says.
East Office of Finnish Industries is a not-for-profit enterprise set up about three years ago by 20 large Finnish companies and the Finnish Innovation Fund (SITRA).
The East Office board is headed by former Fortum CEO Mikael Lilius, and the board also includes SITRA director-general Mikko Kosonen. The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is represented by Pekka Huhtaniemi, Undersecretary of State of the ministry’s trade policy section, who was recently named Finland’s Ambassador to Britain. His post on the board could be taken by his successor at the trade policy section, Esko Hamilo.
Many of the diplomats have their political home in the Centre Party. Huhtaniemi is a former aide to ex-Prime Minister Esko Aho and Hamilo has served as aide to current Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
Nyberg himself has served as a diplomat in Leningrad, Moscow, Brussels, Bonn, Vienna, and Berlin. He was taken into East Office from Berlin, where he was serving as the Finnish Ambassador.
East Office differs from the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce in that it is closed to outsiders, and does not need any new members, or publicity.
“The shareholders have also not expressed a desire to significantly change or expand the foundation of the company”, Nyberg said a few years ago in Visio, a publication of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries.
According to the same interview, Nyberg agreed that East Office would not have a public profile; its CEO would not appear on Morning TV discussing his activities in Russia.
One of the founding members, Marko Somerma, director of strategy for Rautaruukki, explained the reasons for setting up East Office: “As is generally known, relations between business, the political elite, and officials are closer in Russia than in the West.”
East Office has attained a semi-official position in dealing with trade relations between Finland and Russia. It is like a modernised version of the old Finnish-Soviet trade commission, which was led for about 20 years by Finland’s Ahti Karjalainen and Nikolai Patolichev of the Soviet Union.
The only difference is that the office is not accountable to anyone other than the companies that own it. The organisation is also very light, with only five people working in its Helsinki office, and just two in Moscow.
East Office is a response to the hopes of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is building a system of state- monopoly capitalism. The Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce has taken a back seat to East Office, even though there is some overlapping. Outokumpu’s Juha Rantanen, Nokian Tyres’s Kim Gran and VR’s Mikael Aro are on the boards of both organisations.
Links:
East Office of Finnish Industries
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 17.6.2010 - TODAY |
East Office, set up by Finnish industrial companies, starts handling trade with Russia
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