MEDIA REVIEW 25 May 2020 HEADLINES
HS Editorials
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Tram lines improve the desirability of urban districts-
Helsinki prepares for a different summer season-
EU´s overall interest is Finland´s interest too, Finland can no longer hide behind Germany´s back Politics & DomesticHelsingin Sanomat:
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Haavisto: Nordic travel bubble still far away-
Government considers, Orpo would have conditions, Halla-aho pushes euro exit - this is how parties approach the 500 billion package-
Crisis hits particularly the kids of small income families - quarter say they are faring poorly YLE:-
Kultaranta talks: Will we ever return to the path of order-
Defence cooperation between Finland, Sweden and Norway increased - the air forces excercise togetherInternational affairs Helsingin Sanomat:
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Germany no longer requires two weeks of quarantine from travelers from Finland-
First Brexit, now coronavirus - Pandemic adds to the problems of EU citizens in Britain-
Polish presidential elections not predetermined, incumbent Duda popularity shrinks YLE:-
Restless weekend in Hongkong - Taiwan promises support for demonstrators-
Trump bans travel from Brazil to United States Economy Helsingin Sanomat:-
168 000 packages a day - epidemic got Finns buying online-
Car giants´ pain continues in corona crisis-
Growth companies to get government assistance too - Government prepares a 250 million investment in early phase companiesYLE:
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“Wrong” gender increases likelihood of changing careers - gender minorities more likely to leave profession-
ETLA forecasts 8 % contraction to GDP this year, hotel and restaurants could dive by 30 %-
Korea –related news
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HS: Kim Jong-un shows up after weeks - NK holds a meeting to increase nuclear threat-
MTV: North Korea wants to increase nuclear threat - Kim Jong-un returns to public after weeks of silenceYLE ENGLISH NEWS
Monday’s papers: Strawberry fields, one-euro face masks and the mental load
The reality of farm work is capturing Finland's attention.
Why don’t Finns make up for the foreign seasonal labour shortfall caused by coronavirus? A Helsingin Sanomat reporter took up work on one of Finland’s largest strawberry farms in Halikko, north of Salo in southwestern Finland, to find out.
Working alongside seasonal workers from Ukraine, Vietnam and Afghanistan, the reporter found that while spring is theoretically well on its way in May, conditions can be tundra-like.
HS reported that workers at the southwestern farm covered strawberry plants with fleece until 1am one night to protect against frost.
At an hourly rate of 8.71 euros, the farm's seasonal helpers take home around 1,000 euros per month after accounting for travel, permits, taxes and lodging.
Mass masks
"People’s masks," simple nose-and-mouth coverings, are set to arrive on store shelves next week, reports newsstand tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. The S and K grocery giants said they will stock the simple fibre cloth masks that will cost about a euro apiece.
K-Group chief executive Mikko Helander told IS its domestic subsidiary could deliver 1.2 million face masks in June.
S-Group selection manager Ville Vahla said demand for face masks could still explode.
"Demand will jump to a totally different level if the authorities recommend using masks on public transport," he explained.
Outsourcing your to-do list
A story about private daycare that promises to ease the load of overburdened parents has people flocking to a story on business magazine Talouselämä’s site.
At one Helsinki daycare, staff can organise birthday parties, shop or mend clothes, as well as schedule haircuts and flu shots.
For a price, the company said it will chip away at some of the hands-on chores and mental loads families with young children often struggle to manage.
Initial results from a recent Jyväskylä University study suggested that parental exhaustion had increased during the coronavirus crisis.
Sources
Yle News, Ilta-Sanomat, Talouselämä
More people saving and investing in Finland, say bankers For many, the coronavirus has been a wake-up call that they should have money stashed away for a rainy day.
People in Finland are putting more money into savings. A growing number of people are saving or investing more than 400 euros a month, says Karri Alameri, Business Director of the Savings Banks Group.
Tanja Eronen, head of the Nordic Savings and Investment unit at Nordea Bank, estimates that the average amount saved or invested monthly is about 300 euros per adult.
According to Eronen, most people do not begin saving until they are in their 40s, with the most active savers aged 55 to 65.
“This is at least partly due to the fact that housing loans are still usually taken out for relatively short periods of time in Finland, so loan payments can easily take up any margin for savings in personal economies,” she says.
“People often do not start saving and investing until their housing loan is at least mostly paid off,” explains Eronen.
According to a survey carried out in January for the OP Financial Group, 70 percent of people in Finland save or invest, 47 percent doing so regularly and 23 percent occasionally. About 1,100 adult Finns took part in the survey.
White-collar employees more actively save and invest, says Kai Kalajainen, director of wealth management at OP. Men are more likely to save for their retirement years, particularly between the ages of 50 and 64, he says.
Women are more likely than men to save for holidays and travel, especially in the 18–34 age group.
Fund investors not spooked by pandemic
Eronen says that most Finns put their savings into bank accounts or investment funds rather than individual stocks.
“Women tend to put their savings in bank accounts while men are more likely to invest in funds and shares. But more women are now investing in funds or stocks, so the gap is narrowing,” she says.
The coronavirus pandemic has not yet had a significant impact on fund investments in Finland, bankers say. OP says there has been no decline in the number of people investing in funds, while the Savings Banks report a slight increase in April.
According to the OP poll, some 30 percent of Finnish residents don’t save at all. The most common reason for this is unemployment, Kalajainen says.
“Many people would like to save money but feel that they don’t have any extra money to do so,”
he says.
A survey carried out last year for the Savings Banks showed a more positive view of Finnish saving, suggesting that only 15 percent of the population don’t save at all. That survey was based on about 1,600 working-age Finns.
The Savings Banks’ chief economist, Henna Mikkonen, says that people who take a more long- term, planned-out approach to life are more likely to put money into savings.
“According to our study, low-income individuals who plan long-term save money at about the same rate as higher-income people who tend to plan in the short term. In other words, people’s opportunities to save are not simply based on how much they earn,” she tells Yle.
A 2018 Nordea study provides similar results. It indicated that while higher earners save larger sums than lower-income individuals, not all high-income earners save money at all. Some of those who said they did not have any extra money for savings or investments had incomes of more than 80,000 euros a year.
Eronen says that the coronavirus pandemic has been a wake-up call for many that they should have money put away in case of sudden unexpected changes.
“In this kind of situation, everyone probably understands that it’s always important to have at least a couple months’ worth of savings put away in case of surprising changes,” she says.
Sources Yle
HELSINKI TIMES
Finland and Estonia station border officials in each other’s ports to prevent needless trips
THE DECISION by Finland and Estonia on 14 May to permit work and other necessary travel between the two countries has prompted a number of questions among people eager to make the 90-kilometre sea journey, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
Can you make the journey to meet your partner, pick up your belongings or visit your summer cottage?
Finland and Estonia have stationed border officials in each other’s harbours to advise departing passengers and tell them before the journey whether their documents and purpose of visit will be enough to secure entry on the other side of the gulf.
The officials have had a positive impact, Jani Tiihonen, a coast guard master sergeant at the Finnish Border Guard, told Helsingin Sanomat. At the Port of Tallinn, he revealed, some 15–25 people a day have decided to skip the trip after hearing that they do not have the necessary documents and that the only thing waiting for them at the other side of the gulf is a request to board the next ferry back.
The officials cannot stop anyone from embarking a ferry, however.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the people who were told that these grounds probably won’t get you entry to Finland have believed us. Those who didn’t believe us have returned on the next ferry,”
said Tiihonen.
Most Estonian passengers, he said, have been well-prepared for the journey and had the necessary documents – such as proofs of employment and birth and marriage certificates – on hand, resulting in only a handful of denials of entry in Finland. Officials in Estonia, by contrast, had sent 69 people back to Finland by Wednesday, 20 May.
“Our officials in Finland have explained that these papers won’t get you into the country, but people have wanted to give it a go nonetheless,” said Ivo Utsar, the head of the northern prefecture at the Police and Border Guard of Estonia.
He revealed that those seeking entry have included tourists, cottage owners and leisure travellers.
“One guy told that he had to get to Estonia to buy cigarettes,” he stated to Helsingin Sanomat.
Tiihonen added that border officials have also encountered people intent on testing their constitutional right to leave Finland. “There have been cases where people justify their entry with the right of Finns to leave Finland. While you do have the right to leave, Estonia has no obligation to welcome you,” he reminded.
Helsingin Sanomat wrote on 18 May that more than 50 passengers were turned away by officials in Estonia between 14 and 17 May. Officials in Finland, by contrast, turned away five passengers over the four-day period.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
ERR ESTONIA
Crisis team chief doctor warns of coronavirus making summer comeback ERR | ERR
Even though only two people infected with the coronavirus were registered on May 24, the Health Board's (Terviseamet) crisis team chief doctor, Arkadi Popov, says that the virus has not gone away, and people need to be ready for a potential new wave in summer as well. This is particularly evidenced by recent asymptomatic cases, or cases where the carrier is at a loss as to where they may have picked up the virus.
Doctor Popov said that during recent days, there have been cases where people don´t know where they might have contracted the virus.
"Although we are able to track most of the contacts, the virus can be caught in public spaces, especially when people are moving around actively, socializing, and going to shopping malls,"
Popov told ETV current affairs show "Aktuaalne kaamera" on Sunday.
"And, of course, it must be taken into account that people have also been coming to Estonia from Finland, and the risk of infection in Finland is now many times higher than in Estonia. This must be taken into account," he added.
UN Security Council reaffirms importance of cyberstability
ERR News | ERR
Participants at an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday focusing on cyberstability, conflict prevention and capacity-building stressed that international law applies in cyberspace and that the norms of responsible state behavior hold for all UN member states.
Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Center) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa) both stressed that the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of a secure cyberspace, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.
"This crisis has also demonstrated how crucial it is to have a safe and reliable digital
infrastructure, and how we must collectively work toward a more stable and secure cyberspace,"
Reinsalu said in his opening remarks.
Ratas highlighted the fact that the global COVID-19 crisis has put extra pressure on our critical services in terms of cybersecurity, and thus now is the right time for substantive discussions on cyberstability. Many countries concurred in their own statements as well.
Reinsalu also announced that Estonia plans to convene an international meeting soon to address the importance of digitalization in responding to the coronavirus crisis and assisting recovery efforts.
According to Estonia's Ambassador at Large for Cybersecurity Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, one of the primary objectives of the events was to clearly enshrine previous UN agreements on
cyberstability.
"With this meeting, Estonia showed itself as a driving force when it comes to discussing
emerging threats at the UN Security Council," Tiirmaa-Klaar said. "On an international level, it is important that the conviction shared by Estonia and many countries was heard loud and clear:
cyberspace is not different from other domains where international law guides state behavior."
James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of the experts to brief the UNSC and other UN members, called the event "a major contribution by Estonia and its co-hosts to put this topic in front of the Security Council."
According to Lewis, cyber norms and international law remain the best and most reliable way to build security in cyberspace.
More than 60 countries worldwide participated in the event, which was co-organized by UNSC members Belgium, Dominican Republic and Indonesia as well as Kenya and held on the Estonian-developed virtual event platform Hybridity.
The event, which was moderated by Reinsalu from Tallinn and Estonia's Permanent
Representative to the UN Sven Jürgenson from New York, can be rewatched on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' YouTube channel here.
