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Vesa Vihriälä appointed as State Secretary to the Prime Minister

Government Communications Department
Publication date 28.2.2019 13.29
Press release 128/2019

On Thursday 28 February, the Government appointed Mr Vesa Vihriälä, Doctor of Social Sciences, as State Secretary to the Prime Minister from 13 March 2019. The current State Secretary to the Prime Minister Paula Lehtomäki will start as Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers in March.

Vihriälä currently holds the position of Managing Director at the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy ETLA and the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA. He has also worked as advisor to Olli Rehn, Vice-President of the European Commission, and as State Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office. Before that he worked as the Managing Director of the Pellervo Economic Research Institute, and he has also served in various positions in the Bank of Finland and as an economist in the OECD.

A State Secretary has been appointed to the Prime Minister’s Office since 1990 and his/her term is linked to that of the Prime Minister. The duties of the State Secretary are, as the Prime Minister’s closest aide, to promote and monitor the implementation of the Government Programme, to direct preparation of matters in the Government and to ensure cooperation with the ministries. A State Secretary directs the Prime Minister’s Office, assisted by the Permanent State Under-Secretary. The State Secretary to the Prime Minister also chairs meetings of the ministries’ Permanent Secretaries.

Inquiries: Timo Lankinen, Permanent State Under-Secretary, tel. +358 295 160 300 and Riina Nevamäki, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister, tel. +358 9 160 22009, Prime Minister's Office

State Secretary Paula Lehtomäki chosen as Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers as of March 2019

 
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