Social dialogue in the candidate countries

Social dialogue and EMU in the Candidate Countries Workshop

Vienna, 22-24 May 2002

Speech abstract - Olli Aulio

Ministry of Trade and Industry, Finland

The role of national plans in preparation of EMU: the Finnish national competitiveness plan

The presentation will outline how the governmental preparation plan in Finland was organised to help SMEs (small and medium-sized companies) in their changeover to euro.

The following topics will be covered:

• a detailed timetable of the plan (1997-2002);

• the content of the plan;

• the benefits of the euro compared to national currencies;

• the resources (where did the money for the plan come from);

• the cooperation of state officials, employers' organisations, enterprise organisations, banks, EICs and specialists from various organisations;

• he strategic impact of the euro for companies;

• the outcome of the project;

• what did we learn; if we had to do it again what would we do in a different way.

Olli Aulio is licentiate of science (chemistry), Helsinki University and holds a Master of Business Administration from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, KTK. He is senior adviser at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Finland and was Chairman of the Ministry's euro project for small and medium-sized companies from 1997 to 2001.

Mr. Aulio has more than twenty years' experience in areas such as the content creation industry, the euro, entrepreneurship of women, entrepreneurship in rural areas, SME companies, industrial design and productivity. He also has ten years' experience in Finnish and international companies. Special areas of expertise cover technical marketing in USA and Canada, marketing in Finland and marketing in the Soviet Union.