Entrepreneur, businessman and self-made millionaire Ilpo Kokkila sharply criticised the current government for stalling on making significant structural changes and focusing instead on smaller, less relevant issues. Kokkila, outgoing Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) chairman, says the government needs to get on with decision-making and put into practice measures that have already been agreed upon in order to restart the Finnish economy.
"It's sad that we have been recently focusing on entirely the wrong economic issues, small and populist ones. There has been talk of small increases to pensions and free fishing licenses for seniors. From an economic and political standpoint, these are totally secondary issues," said Kokkila in an interview with Yle's TV 1 on Friday morning.
Kokkila said Finnish politicians are looking for easy solutions and easy issues that please people.
He doesn't believe that cutbacks and resuscitating the economy cancel each other out, but cautioned both need to be done carefully.
"Revitalising the economy is a positive thing, but it needs to be done so that the resources used to revive the economy actually address problems that require attention," he said.
Although there is a pressing need for a new collective labour agreement -- the current one dates back to 1946 -- Kokkila says the tripartite system is problematic and not suited to the modern world as different work places have different demands and it's difficult for one system to serve labour organisations, employers and employee organisations, and the government.
"We are clearly moving toward more individual and work-place related agreements on many levels," said Kokkila, who also pointed out that illegal strikes and the threat of strikes should not be used as a tool for influencing collective bargaining.
Kokkila, 66, has announced that he will step down as EK chairman in December.