Vietnam, Finland Boosting Business Cooperation

Vietnam and Finland officially signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relationship on January 25, 1973. In their 40 years of diplomatic relations, the two countries have been developing good bilateral relations in all fields. Especially, on June 15, 2013, the opening of direct Helsinki – Hanoi flights contributed to the growth in the two countries’ trade to US$1 billion and further tightened relations.  

Mr Lien said, “Cooperation in economy – trade – investment is a top priority in Finland’s relations with Vietnam. According to a recent survey by the Finnish Business Association, among Asian markets, Vietnam ranked only after China and India in attracting Finland’s firms. Thus, Vietnamese firms should see Finnish companies as potential partners to further promote the cooperation relations in the coming time.”

 

Mr Kimmo Lähdevirta, Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam, said information technology, clean technology, healthcare, high technology and investment are the strengths and the promising cooperation fields between Finland and Vietnam in the coming time. In particular, Finland also focuses on investment in the energy sector and development of renewable energy sources with leading companies in energy conservation, efficient use of energy, and renewable energy production. Vietnam and EU are now in talks to sign a trade agreement which is expected to be concluded by the end of 2014, which should bring a new wind of cooperation between Vietnam and Finland in particular, as well as other EU countries.

 

Ambassador Kimmo Lähdevirta expressed hope that, at the conference, Vietnamese firms will collect more necessary information about the business environment and the specific cooperation fields to enhance the relationship between the two countries in the information and communication technology, clean technology, energy, environment, import and export. Finland has many tools to support Vietnam and other partners in the world (Finnpartnership and Finnfund cooperation programmes), in the region (the Energy and Environment Partnership with the Mekong Region (EEP Mekong) to support Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand), in the specific countries (supporting Vietnam in Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP) is being implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Science & Technology of Vietnam) and local institutions (Embassy of Finland in Vietnam is managing the local cooperation).

 

At the conference, Ms Siv Ahlberg, Programme Director at Vietnamese and Finnish Business Partnership Programme (Finnpartnership) introduced to Vietnam the effective partnership programme. Finnpartnership was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by the Finnish Financial Development Agency with the aim of promoting business cooperation between companies in Finland and in developing countries. Finnpartnership provides free counselling services and financial support for projects of Finnish enterprises in developing countries. Besides, Finnpartnership also takes the initiative in business partnerships between Finnish and developing country companies, thereby creating trade cooperation to help the countries’ firms (including Vietnam) seek partners and expand business cooperation in high potential areas such as information technology, greenhouse, clean technology solutions for water, energy, environment and education.