Ministers Viitanen and Shindo signed a joint statement

Ministry of Transport and Communications
Publication date 19.9.2013 13.49
News item
Ministers Shindo and Viitanen 19 Sept 2013 (photo MINTC)
Ministers Shindo and Viitanen 19 Sept 2013 (photo MINTC)

Ms Pia Viitanen, Minister of Housing and Communications of Finland and Mr Yoshitaka Shindo, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, have signed a joint statement for the ICT industry. The ministers met on 19 September 2013 in Helsinki.

The purpose of the statement is to further strengthen the cooperation between Finland and Japan in promoting use of information and communications technology. Cooperation areas include consumer issues, data security, infrastructure and the utilisation of ICT in healthcare and education.

Minister Viitanen introduced Finland's goal to become the geopolitical centre for European telecommunications to Minister Shindo. According to Viitanen, Finland is investing in creating a good operational environment for data centres and other cloud-based business.

In addition, Finland is actively improving its telecommunication trunk connections abroad. Minister Viitanen provided details to Minister Shindo on plans for a submarine cable between Finland and Germany. A decision is expected to be made on it this autumn. The ministers also discussed the North-East Passage submarine cable.