The Honorable Sauli Niinistö, Speaker of the Parliament of Finland addressed the challenges to maintaining competitiveness in the current global economic environment. Finland was ranked sixth overall in the World Economic Forum’s 2007-2008 Global Competiveness Index. The categories in which Finland consistently out-performed others were that of: institutions, higher education and training, and innovation. The U.S. perspective was presented by Leon Sequeira, Assistant Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, who is a principal advisor to the Secretary of Labor on regulatory, legislative and policy issues affecting the Department and the American workforce.