Speech by President of the Republic of Tarja Halonen at the main celebration of the Anders Chydenius Jubilee Year in Kokkola on 1.3.2003

Several international comparisons reveal that Finland is one of the more successful countries in this world of globalisation. Time and time again we are being asked to explain how that is possible. Although self-praise does not come easily to Finns, the truth is that our country has been transformed in a relatively short time from a poor and predominantly agrarian society into one of the most prosperous in the world.

Bleak natural conditions in the cold North have certainly helped teach us to work hard in order to survive and to take care of each other. But a small nation had to learn to trade with others very early on as well.

I myself am fairly convinced of the role that the model we call the Nordic welfare society has played in our success. The basic idea behind this homespun model of ours is the politically stable society that democracy, human rights and the rule of law create, and in which good governance guarantees effective functioning. The openness of the system creates trust and prevents corruption. It is a society that encourages enterprise, but which accords value to the worker as well.

To put it in modern terms, I could say that we are trying to combine the efficiency of the market economy with social justice. Thanks to collective efforts, this gives every individual in generation after generation a secure start, including a good education. With a general election approaching, there is disagreement on many of the details of the system, but something on which there is still unanimity is that we need both the individual's enterprise and common responsibility to create this Team Finlandia.

It is interesting to note how long the historical roots of this thinking are. The person whom we are celebrating today, Anders Chydenius, was an astonishingly modern man.

This Curate of Alaveteli and Rector of Kokkola, a prominent statesman in the latter half of the 18th century and a master wordsmith, profoundly pondered the relationship between the economy and society. His role in promoting trade liberalisation is well known. Indeed, he was sent to the Diet in Stockholm specifically to advocate the right of towns along the Gulf of Bothnia to bypass the burghers in Stockholm and engage directly in foreign trade. As he sought to justify this demand for a reform that would affect the everyday lives of people in his home district, the arguments he wrote in favour of liberalising trade and abolishing privilege were as good as universally applicable and timeless in character.

Nevertheless, posterity would be doing Chydenius an injustice if he were to be remembered only as a promoter of trade liberalisation. He had the ability to see people and society as a totality, in which freedoms, rights and responsibility are inseparably intertwined. He was one of the most passionate champions of freedom of speech. He wanted to promote people's right to their own religion, even when it differed from the faith of the majority.

He wanted to promote democracy. In the Diet, he called for oversight of the way state funds were spent; in modern language we would say he advocated openness and good governance.

Nor is that all. Chydenius used his sharp pen also to defend the rights of wage-earners. When we add to all of that the fact that his writings contain expressions of concern about such matters as the position of indigenous peoples in the colonies and animal rights, we can only be astonished at his radicalism. On the other hand, of course, there is no actual reason to be astonished: our Nordic society is ultimately founded on radical principles of freedom, equality and collective responsibility. One of the personifications of these principles is Anders Chydenius, whose jubilee we are now so rightly celebrating.

The word "globalisation" was not used in the 18th century. Maps still had blank spaces on them and information travelled slowly. It is true that seafaring linked coastal towns and cities and mediated influences from one country to another, but one did not need to go far into the hinterland, even here in Finland, before temporal and intellectual distances began growing. There was no one world.

On the other hand, quite many people in developing countries see globalisation as nothing more than colonialism's direct heir. That description is one-sided, but understandable in the light of history. I would dare to argue, namely, that globalisation contains the possibility of not only eliminating poverty, but also of people and nations prospering and developing.

Technology, the economy and communications have irrevocably bound the inhabitants of the globe together. The fruits of work have not been equitably shared. Especially many people living in developing countries have become the victims of this injustice. In a world where information flows freely, the drawbacks of this development have not gone unnoticed. Economic distress and a sense of marginalisation have caused unrest in many countries around the world, and also here in the prosperous Nordic region we have seen forceful expressions of views.

It is clear that the time for a change has come and that the possibility of it exists. It is possible to move on from stark antagonism to dialogue. There is a broader consensus than there used to be that things can not be allowed to continue the way they are going: what is needed now is a globalisation that features greater social justice and is more humane.

The United Nations and its specialist agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the European Union and numerous NGOs all agree on the goal. We can learn to guide globalisation in a way that enables more and more people to share its benefits and ensures that fewer have to suffer.

In the short term, concessions on the part of the industrial countries are a precondition for the role that the developing countries play in globalisation being a better and fairer one. In the long term, everyone will gain from it.

In order to achieve these goals, the International Labour Organisation, appointed a commission to examine the social dimension of globalisation in February last year and I have the honour to co-chair it together with President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania. The commission also includes 24 other men and women who, in my view, represent an excellent cross-section of political, economic and cultural backgrounds and perspectives on globalisation.

There was a feeling in ILO circles that a separate commission should be appointed. A body of that kind would be independent and able to weave together different strands of opinion as well as identify any overlapping or gaps. The commission should be able to outline the totality as broadly as possible, but at the same time concentrate specifically on the effects that globalisation is having on people and their families and lives.

The commission's report is due for completion next autumn. Without wanting to pre-empt it in any greater detail, it seems now that the matters addressed in it will include at least the problem of developing countries' indebtedness, the fairness of international trade and of the international financial structure, agricultural export subsidies, mobility of people from one country to another and good governance. How very typical of Chydenius these themes sound at an event like this!

For Anders Chydenius it was important to examine matters from the perspective of the "small man". I too find it important that we adopt a people-centred perspective when we are analysing the effects of globalisation or pondering how best to manage it. It is people who are the objects of globalisation and at the same time its subjects. What also follows logically from this is that globalisation is not a law of nature, but rather a process set in train by people.

The work of building a better and fairer world begins close at hand. It is difficult to believe that the international system could be fairer without the marked shortcomings with respect to democracy, human rights and the rule of law that we can see in many countries being put right. Indeed, we must not underestimate the importance of the nation-state in managing globalisation and creating a just society.

Comments about globalisation and changes in the economy and society often give the impression that we are facing nothing but threats and dangers. That being the case, we are not seeing the totality of change.

With the aid of the economy, people can increase their individual and their collective prosperity. When we are liberalising the economy, we must ensure that it exists for people rather than the other way round. Likewise, all must be guaranteed the right to cherish and develop their national and local cultures.

I congratulate the energetic people from Kokkola and elsewhere who have arranged the events marking the Anders Chydenius jubilee year. There is every reason to celebrate, because his role as a prominent figure in the history of our nation has become only more illustrious with the passage of time. His ideas still sound startlingly topical. I wish success to the Anders Chydenius Foundation as it begins its work of cherishing and propagating in our own time the ideas of the person whose name it bears.

It would now be appropriate to consider producing a scientific edition of Anders Chydenius' writings, in the original Swedish and translated into Finnish as has been done with the works of J.V. Snellman. A selection translated into international languages could also prompt interest.

In honour of this Anders Chydenius jubilee year, the chamber where the Kokkola City Council assembles has been extended and now serves as an excellent congress venue. The new facility will improve Kokkola's prospects of hosting conferences and congresses. At the same time, it will continue to serve as the centre of democratic decision making, culture and progress in its region, in the spirit of Anders Chydenius. The success of Kokkola and its surrounding region is first and foremost in the hands of its hard-working and enterprising residents. May the wellbeing and freedom of the people here be the central goal of the decisions made in this chamber.

I express my warmest greetings to the City of Kokkola and its inhabitants as well as to the other celebrants and wish them success. I congratulate the City on its new Kokkola Hall and hereby declare it inaugurated.