Tarja Halonen News

A new LNG-driven fast ferry Megastar was christened in Meyer Turku shipyard for owner/operator Tallink Grupp. The environmentally sound ship was christened on July 1 by former president of Finland Tarja Halonen. First steel was cut for Megastar on August 4, 2015, and the keel was laid on February 9, 2016. Float-out and sea-trials are planned for July and the last months of 2016, respectively, followed by delivery planned to take place in the beginning of 2017. Janek Stalmeister, CEO of AS Tallink Grupp, said that the process of completing the ship is now almost halfway done.

Her Excellency Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, has presented the 2008 Internationalization Awards to Napa Group, Avant Tecno Oy and Sunit Oy. The Feb. 19 ceremony was the 41nd in the history of the award. The objective of the Internationalization Awards, which are coordinated by Finpro, is to help businesses to operate in an international environment and to boost their ability to develop and adopt new operating models. The Award can be presented to a company or community that has actively participated in developing international Finland. The preparatory work and the choosing of the candidates for the Awards is done by Finpro in collaboration with the Association for Finnish Work. The Awards are donated by The Finnish Fair Corporation.

Tarja Halonen, President of the , awarded an honorary title of Maritime counselor to Hans Langh on  June 12. Langh, born in 1949, is a businessman from , who has been in the shipping business since 1980. Hans Langh was one of the founding members of the Shipowners’ association for smaller ships in foreign trade in 1986, which later became the Cargoship association. On June 1, the winds changed in the Finnish shipping business when Suomen Varustamoyhdistys, the Cargoship Association and Ålands Redarförening united their forces with a new association, Finnish Shipowners’ Association.