New group strategy for the Ministry of Transport and Communications and its administrative branch

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has published a new group strategy for 2016-2020. It is the first strategy to steer the entire administrative branch and has been drawn up by the ministry in cooperation with the agencies. It is also the ministry's operational and financial plan, required by budget legislation for 2017-2020.

The organisation of the Ministry of Transport and Communications changed at the beginning of 2016. The group strategy lays a foundation for the new organisation's operation, which is based on three pillars: networks, information and services.

The emphases in the operations of the Finnish Transport Agency, the Finnish Transport Safety Agency, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority and the Finnish Meteorological Institute will also be outlined in this context.

The group strategy is based on the vision of the Ministry of Transport and Communications that good connections create well-being and competitiveness. The responsibility of the administrative branch is to ensure that transport and communication systems and services are safe and well-functioning, and that they will support growth and creation of new digital services in a sustainable way.

The cross-cutting theme in the Government Programme is digitality. Of the Government's key projects, creating a growth environment for digital business operations and simplifying legislation (deregulation) are the central ones in the ministry's group strategy.

The strategy is based on high-quality transport and communications networks. Their performance will be raised to the level required by digitality.

As a rule, transport and communication services will be organised on market terms. Particularly the role of services in transport makes it possible to organise seamless service entities by combining different forms of transport.

Particular attention is paid to utilisation of information. Information creates a foundation for growth sectors, such as the Internet-of-Things, robotisation and automatisation. While it must be possible to use and share information openly, users' privacy and right to their own information must also be ensured.