On 16 June, Finland's Minister of Transport and Local Government Henna Virkkunen and China's Vice Minister of Transport He Jianzhong met in Helsinki to discuss current issues related to the transport sector.
During the meeting, the ministers signed a Memorandum of Understanding on transport sector between the two countries. The MoU applies to cooperation in areas such as the development of intelligent transport, environmentally friendly transport and transport planning.
At the meeting, Minister Virkkunen gave her colleague an overview of Finland's transport administration's new projects and detailed Finland's special traffic conditions.
"In the long-term, Finland's new transport policy aims for a change that will see transport services produced and managed comprehensively. All transport users will have an active role and participate in the planning and development of services," Ms Virkkunen explained.
Ms Virkkunen also told about a project in which officials and the private sector are working together to pilot new action models and services in order to activate e-services in transport.
The ministers exchanged experiences on the development of winter road maintenance and road weather services. Ms Virkkunen said that developed road weather services had ensured faster and more up-to-date maintenance of roads. This has brought great savings especially with regard to winter road maintenance and made adoption of different types of communication, warning and steering services possible.
The ministers also talked about an increase in the use of alternative fuels. Ms Virkkunen explained that it was both Finland's and the EU's goal to see a significant increase in the use of electric cars.
Further information:
Ms Laura Rissanen, Special Adviser, tel. +358 295 34 2325
