olli rehn : empowering women in business leadership speech by mr olli rehn, deputy governor of the bank of finland, at the international women's day, helsinki, 8 march 2018. * * * accompanying slides ladies and gentlemen, many thanks for the invitation to give the opening address in this very important seminar on “ empowering women in business leadership ”. i find the subject of today ’ s seminar particularly topical and pertinent for the international women ’ s day, and want to warmly thank the french embassy and eu representation for organizing this event. let me start with some personal reflections on the subject. i have all the reasons to respect competent women, especially as i had one very close by, at home. my mother vuokko ( 1938 – 2011 ) was the first gymnasium ( high school ) graduate and the first university student of her extended family. she worked as english and swedish teacher for many years, and was also a ‘ school steward ’ in the teachers ’ trade union oaj. later on she became the marketing manager of our company – and was elected a member of parliament in the mid - 1990s. i am most grateful to her for encouraging me to respect equal rights and value the importance of education. another reflection concerns finland as a nation. one thing i am particularly proud of finland is gender equality and women ’ s rights. we were the country which first gave full and universal political rights to women to vote and be a candidate in 1906. with the extension of education and building up of social and family policy, we have made big strides over the past decades. but i am not saying that everything is perfect or that we are in the goal already. no, we have still much work to do, especially in the working life and business leadership. the same goes for europe, as well. as commission vice - president i was glad to sponsor in 2012 the proposal championed by my colleague viviane reding to break the glass ceiling that bars female talent from top positions in europe ’ s biggest companies. the commission proposed legislation with the aim of attaining a 40 % goal of the underrepresented sex in non - executive board - member positions in publicly listed companies, with the exception of smes. while not flying as such, it was a strong call for action to bring about gender equality in corporate boardrooms and in economic decision - making. * * * let us next look at the current state of gender balance in the working and business life in finland. income

must distinguish between different aspects of the situation – commercial, competitive and social. if, other things being equal, banks are to be pressed into assisting with the delivery of social policies, then the precise terms of that obligation, including responsibility for funding it, should be made clear – whether by law or in suitable agreements or codes. in hong kong, banking, in a rather narrow definition, is estimated to contribute about 7. 5 % to gross domestic product and about 3. 5 % to employment. despite the withdrawal of a number of individual banks, particularly japanese, from hong kong in the late 1990s, the share of banking in gdp appears to have remained roughly stable for a number of years now. however, the share in employment has declined somewhat of late – as has also been evident in, for example, the usa and uk over a slightly longer period. this implies that there have been significant productivity gains, including no doubt those arising from the process of consolidation, which has been evident among international banks with presences in hong kong for some time and has now been spreading to the local banks. permit me one further historical reflection, related partly to my earlier comment about attitudes towards banking. when i first studied economics, there was a respected body of literature which argued that productivity growth in manufacturing would always outstrip that in other sectors because manufacturing was more amenable to the application of new technologies and economies of scale. in services, output was regarded as too firmly dependent on the specific input of labour for there to be much scope for productivity gains. this reasoning even led some governments to adopt policies with a bias to promote manufacturing in the belief that this would be the route to more rapid overall growth, although this seemed to ignore the demand side – that the public would become saturated with goods and increasingly desire to consume services. i don't know whether any of the protagonists of that school of thought are still alive today. if they are, and even if they could still identify some services where productivity has not advanced very much ( hairdressers and taxis are among the usually quoted examples ), they would be astonished at the productivity growth which has been apparent in banking and certain other service sectors around the world in recent years, as a result of the forces of globalised competition and the opportunities presented by technological advances. it is clear, therefore, that banking and other financial services not only provide essential support to development but also make their own contribution to national income. i am often asked questions such as what is the