Pääministeri Marinin puheenvuoro OECD:n yleissopimuksen allekirjoittamisen 60-vuotisjuhlassa
Thank you for this opportunity to greet and to congratulate the OECD and its member states on behalf of Finland on this special day.
Thank you for this opportunity to greet and to congratulate the OECD and its member states on behalf of Finland on this special day.
As we all know, 2020 has been an exceptionally hard year. We also know that the post-COVID19 world will be different from the world before the pandemic. Certain megatrends have accelerated, such as digitalization, and several global challenges remain critical – especially climate change. Some of the longer-term effects of the Covid crisis still remain to be seen.
I strongly believe that every crisis should be seen as opportunity to evolve, to improve our policies and to become socially, economically and environmentally more sustainable. We must not overlook this opportunity to change and to accelerate the green recovery. As governments, we can choose whether to sit on the passenger’s seat or to take action.
A transformative recovery will not be possible without multilateral cooperation. We need cooperation to agree on common goals and on the sharing of responsibilities. We need cooperation to exchange information about the best ways to tackle the crisis.
The OECD is a good forum for this kind of cooperation. This organization has stood the test of time and has provided evidence-based analysis and a platform for peer-learning for nearly 60 years. It is quite clear to me that if the OECD did not exist today, we would have to invent it.
Finland has been a loyal supporter of OECD’s valuable work during our membership of over 50 years, and I want to express our gratitude for this cooperation that has helped Finland to become the highly advanced welfare society it is today.
I would also like to congratulate Secretary General Gurria, the secretariat as well as all the member states and their OECD delegations in Paris on this special day and I wish you all good health. A special thanks to president Macron and to prime minister Sanchez for co-hosting this event.
The OECD’s motto is “better policies for better lives”. Perhaps, in the time of crisis, our work could aim at building better policies. Thank you, and I wish you a successful event.