Accra, April 23, GNA - The Finnish President, Tarja Halonen on Wednesday called on the leadership of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) to conduct themselves well in public as the whole world would be watching them to show quality leadership.

She said being a trade unionist was a challenging task and they should always ensure that they protected the rights of workers. President Halonen, who was once a trade unionist, made the call when she paid a courtesy call on the leadership of GTUC to share her experiences and ideas with them.

She worked as a lawyer for the National Trade Union Centre of Finland (SAK) for a long period before becoming the President of Finland in 2000.

Touching on the soaring world food prices, President Halonen said the worst affected were the poor and the vulnerable in society and stressed the need for trade unions the world over to assist their governments and international organizations to address the problem. She also called for a united front, which, she said, was necessary in fostering socio-economic and political cooperation to sustain agreements and policies on world food security.

Recounting 90 years of Finland's independence, she said the first 30 years were not easy but with commitment and determination "we were able to build a strong nation by investing in the education of the people".

Mr Kofi Asamoah, Acting Secretary-General of the GTUC, announced that GTUC had adopted a three-year Strategic Plan for 2008 to 2010 covering areas such as education, training, policy, research, organizational development, restructuring, organizing and international affairs.

He said the plan sought to further introduce professionalism into their operations to enable them to reach out to members and provide service in a more efficient and effective way.

Mr Asamoah said the government and the trade unions in Finland had, through the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK), pledged their support for the Plan for the entire period.

He said Finland had been one of the countries that had continued to support the activities of the GTUC.

"Through the SASK, the Government and the trade unions in Finland have been supporting our work in the areas of workers' education, training, research and policy analysis.

"Currently, there is a certificate course in Labour Studies which is a joint Ghana TUC/University of Cape Coast programme, based at the Labour college here in Accra," he said.

Mr Asamoah appealed to her to influence the European Union to get a fair deal for Africa in the on-going negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).