AMBASSADOR BARRETT MEETS WITH FINNISH EMPLOYMENT

UNCLAS HELSINKI 000278 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR DRL/ILCSR, EUR/NB DOL FOR ILAB FOR BILL BRUMFIELD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL ELAB ETRD EINV ENRG KGHG FI SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR BARRETT MEETS WITH FINNISH EMPLOYMENT MINISTER CRONBERG ¶1. (SBU) During the Ambassador,s June 19 courtesy call, Minister of Employment Tarja Cronberg indicated she may wish to pursue a meeting or other contact with Secretary Chao after returning from summer vacation. Cronberg complimented the Embassy's city outreach program bringing Embassy employees out to make regional contact throughout Finland; Cronberg is from the Joensuu region. ¶2. (U) The Ambassador and Cronberg, the minister responsible for entrepreneurship in Finland, discussed a possible venture capital meeting focused on climate and energy innovation in Finland, where Finland could showcase its inventions and investors from the US could look at Finland. Minister Cronberg responded that she would like to follow up on this idea, especially for regions where logging has ended and Finland needs to find new industry. She also expressed interest in the military and aerospace industries BARRETT