Finnish and Italian Ministers for Foreign Trade Jari Vilén and Adolfo Urso emphasised the importance of the SME sector and urged their respective foreign trade and export promotion organisations, Finpro and ICE, to boost cooperation after their meeting in Helsinki on 2 October. In their joint press statement, they expressed their wish that the ICE and Finpro would consider the establishment of regular contacts and would seek new sectors of cooperation as well as joint ventures in Italy, Finland and third countries, also by exploiting international financing facilities.
The ministers talked about bilateral commercial and economic relations with special focus on hi-tech, telecommunication and electronic industry, transport and tourism and particularly Finland's role as a gateway to Russia.
