"Finland Needs 100,000 Foreign Workers"

According to the Finnish daily newspaper Kaleva, over the next 20 years, Finland will need a minimum of 100,000 immigrants in order to fill a labour shortage.

Rauno Vanhanen, director of the government's employment, entrepreneurship and work life policy programme (Ministry of Employment and Economy), said to the Oulu’s newspaper that another 300,000 unemployed people in Finland should be encouraged to work.

He also calls for Finns to stay at work longer into their later years, adding that productivity should moreover be improved.

Rauno Vanhanen has calculated that without foreign reinforcement, Finland's working age population will decrease by 420,000 people between 2007 and 2030.

Links:
Newspaper: Finland Needs 100,000 Foreign Workers yle.fi
300 000 työntekijää saa paikan kaleva.fi

Related articles:

A long and fit working life

"With the population ageing and the baby-boom generation starting to retire, more attention is being given to employee well-being in Finnish working life. How can employees be encouraged to stay on at work right up to pensionable age, while staying fit and active? Solutions are being found at national and workplace level. Even better, action to boost well-being at work is proving to be an investment that benefits companies and their staff." Read more on virtual.finland.fi by Salla Korpela, journalist

How about getting a job in Finland? Skilled hands needed in many fields

"Finland is bidding immigrants a warm welcome. The attractions of working in Finland include good working conditions and high employment security. Even the intriguing Finnish language poses no barrier to newcomers willing to make an effort. Last year some 22,500 people migrated to Finland." Read more on virtual.finland.fi
by Salla Korpela, journalist [Published December 2007]

Environmental Sector will create 500 000 jobs in the Nordic countries

Towards the merger of French and Nordic telecoms?

According to the Swedish-language newspaper in Finland Hufvudstadsbladet, France Telecom has announced its interest in moving closer to the Finnish-Swedish operator TeliaSonera. Björn Sundell wondered whether the merger would be advisable.

"This operation would not generate synergy effects. The overlap between the two entities and the potential for lower costs are too weak. In addition, following its last wave of purchases, France Telecom faces heavy debts. The French operator will therefore have difficult to get 30 billion euros needed for the acquisition of its northern counterpart …"

Read more on the site Eurotopics

Links:
France Telecom eyes Nordic rival news.bbc.co.uk
France Telecom mulls Nordic expansion chron.com

Al Gore expects global climate agreement next year in Denmark

Copenhagen X - The Movie

The overall goal for the 2009 (COP15) United Nations Climate Change Conference hosted by Denmark (Copenhagen) is to establish an ambitious global climate agreement for the period from 2012.

The TransAtlantic Climate Conference 2008 (7 and 8 April) ended with two days of presentations and debate on the global climate crisis. 2007 Nobel Prize winner and former United States Vice-President, Al Gore addressed the conference audience with a keynote speech on climate change and its implications on ocean environments.

Read more

“If the future of the planet is to be assured we will have to raise our game and do something about the crisis we face right away,”

Al Gore, told a climate conference on the Faroe Islands.
Gore also expects the countries of the world to agree on a new treaty to further reduce CO2 emissions at the major UN Climate Summit in Denmark in 2009.

“I also expect the USA to ratify the Kyoto Protocol soon. No matter which of the three candidates wins the Presidency, the USA will commit to reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases,”

Gore told a packed meeting in Nordic House in Tòrshavn, TV2/News reports.

The former Vice-President mentioned Sweden but reserved particular praise for the way Norway has dealt with the oil industry. He also quoted from the Faroese author William Heinesen’s most famous novel ‘The Lost Musicians’.

Ólavur Gregersen, organizer of the conference, called the idea of TACIT (“TransAtlantic Climate Institute”Faroe Islands) , "an international phenomenon" and hopes for an investment initiative by autumn of this year and a launch of the institute at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in Autumn 2009.

The COP15 conference is the fifteenth Conference of the Parties under the United Nations’ Climate Change Convention. The conference will take place from 30 November to 11 December 2009. The overall goal for the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference is to establish an ambitious global climate agreement for the period from 2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires.

Links:
www.tacc2008.com [tacc2008.com]
www.norden.org/webb/news [norden.org]
al-gore-to-climate-conference-in-faroe

World's Healthiest Countries (Forbes): Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

According to Forbes’ website, northern Europe is home to some of the world's healthiest countries, including top-ranking Iceland, Sweden and Finland. Clean air, low rates of illness and access to food are important factors that contribute to make these the world's 15 best places to live.

Read more

"Historically, these countries had an ethic of having more of a nationalized health care system,"

"There's this mentality that health care should be a given right for citizens."

"Everyone, needs to be aware that how we provide health care to people in a country is a critical issue."

said Kate Schecter, a program officer for the American International Health Alliance.

“Countries' success in combating pollution is likely due to a mix of policies addressing the problem, enforcement of standards and the use of clean fuel”

“But some places, such as those located along coastlines, are simply luckier than others, since crosswinds can dilute air pollution”

said Kiran Pandey, a senior environmental economist for the Global Environment Facility, an author of the research.

List of the world's 15 healthiest countries

1.Iceland
2.Sweden
3.Finland
4.Germany
5.Switzerland
6.Australia
7.Denmark
8.Canada
9.Austria
10.Netherlands
11.USA
12.Israel
13.Czech Republic
14.Spain
15.France

Methodology

To compile the list, Forbes.com attempted to gather health and environmental statistics for every nation. But due to incomplete data, they only ranked 138 nations around the world (we don't see countries such as Monaco, Norway, Malta, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Ireland and Andorra)

The examined statistics include:

• estimated air pollution in world cities
  

• the percentage of a country's population with access to improved drinking water and sanitation
  

• infant mortality rates
  

• the rate of prevalence of tuberculosis
  

• the density of physicians - generalist and specialists - per 1,000 people
  

• undernourishment rates
  

• and healthy life expectancy for men at birth

Sources (used to compile the list)

• Ambient Particulate Matter Concentrations in Residential and Pollution Hotspot Areas of World Cities: New Estimates Based on the Global Model of Ambient Particulates (GMAPS); The World Bank Development Economics Research Group and the Environment Department Working PaperWorld
  

• Health Statistics 2007; World Health Organization
  

• Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment, 2000 Report, Geneva and New York; World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund. Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
  

• FAO Statistical Yearbook Vol. 2 (2005-2006) Country Profiles

Links:
Allison Van Dusen and Ana Patricia Ferrey, World's Healthiest Countries, www.forbes.com

March 2008 OviMagazine [Download the free PDF]

Download the free monthly PDF magazine from here, which contains original articles and other material:

And that was March 2008...
Published: 2008-03-31 (7.37MB)

We can hardly believe it, but this month we featured 16 different team members on our covers and that must be a record - it is, take our word for it!