KEY POINTS:
It makes a difference coming to another country with a woman leader, says Finland's President, Tarja Halonen.
Ms Halonen is the first woman to become President in Finland. She began her first term in 2000 and was re-elected last year.
She hopes she will live to see the
day when the gender of leaders does not generate the interest it does today but also says that interest can have positive spin-offs.
"If you want to be seen, in many cases a woman is a good way to give visibility to a country.
"Your Prime Minister is very well known, not only here in the Pacific area but she's very well known in New York, Europe, Africa and Asia."
President Halonen was in Wellington yesterday where she held talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Coming to New Zealand had been "very relaxing" because she already knew Helen Clark and they had similar perspectives on issues.
While New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote, Finland was the first country to introduce equal and universal suffrage and full political rights for women.
Both countries are similar in size and population. Finland has a population of 5.2 million.
President Halonen said there were many similarities between Finland and New Zealand. Both were small in size and were investing in quality, not quantity, technology.
President Halonen has brought with her a delegation of experts in innovative technologies. Finland is home to cellphone giant Nokia.
She has an interest in New Zealand's expertise in biotechnologies and sees ways the two countries can learn from each other.
Helen Clark said another area the two countries shared an interest in was international crisis management. Both send military peacekeepers to trouble spots.
New Zealand was interested in learning more about Finland's training centre for civilians who go to troubled nations in a range of capacities, including as election and human rights monitors.
President Halonen said the New Zealand ambassador in The Hague would visit the centre.
Military peacekeepers got good training on how to work in trouble spots but civilians - despite being fully trained in their profession, for instance as firefighters - did not always get taught crisis management, she said.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor has taken an interest in the prison system in Finland, which includes prisoners being paid for work they do while in jail and having short holidays from prison each month to spend with their families.
President Halonen, who has been a justice minister, said her country used a prison system similar to other Nordic countries and prisoners had to earn these privileges "step by step".
She said jail was not effective enough in stopping offending and the best way to stop people becoming criminals was early intervention.
"I'm interested also always to listen if somebody has made a new innovation in this form of love and discipline."
President Halonen leaves New Zealand today.
- NZPA
