Finnish President Alexander Stubb's state visit to China is expected to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fields of green technology, sustainability and healthcare, particularly in tackling issues relating to an aging population, according to the vice chair of the Finland Chamber of Commerce in China.
Stubb arrived in Beijing on Monday to begin a four-day state visit at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Finnish president is expected to hold talks with Xi, and meet with other senior Chinese officials to exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern.
Looking ahead to the visit, Ulla Nurmenniemi, vice chair of FinnCham Beijing, described China as a land of opportunities, and expressed optimism about several areas of potential cooperation which could be deepened during Stubb's trip.
She said Finland's goals in green energy, sustainability, and its pursuit of a "circular economy" could align well with China's rapid advancements, while she also highlighted the experience her country has in areas including in elderly healthcare and digitalization as being other potential sectors for collaboration.
"Taking the China carbon neutrality target, China is developing super fast. I could have never imagined how fast this country is developing. But in that sector, I think our Nordic countries have a lot of innovations that the Chinese companies still want to cooperate together with it and further develop here in China. Second, I would mention the healthcare [sector], especially the aging population. The Finnish population is the second oldest population in the world and that's why we have [at a] very, very early stage, started to focus on elderly care and how to improve it. And we have more engineers and ICT people per capita than other countries. Our public services are all digital, with our long, long experience with that, we can help each other," she said.
Nurmenniemi noted that the Finnish president is accompanied by a large delegation, including three ministers, which sends a positive signal for further cooperation.
During the state visit of Stubb's predecessor Sauli Niinisto in early 2019, the two sides issued a joint action plan (2019-2023) on promoting the future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership between China and Finland, and Nurmenniemi is hopeful a new action plan can be drawn up to build on past joint efforts.
"Last time when Finland and China made this kind of a joint action plan to enhance the business -- and this plan was made for four years, so it ended like the end of last year -- I hope that something [like] this kind of concrete action point or concrete paper is also done this time to enhance the business and collaboration, because the will on both sides is here, so it's very important that we get the government support. Our countries already have very good mechanisms like joint innovation funding mechanism. I hope that these kind of tools remain and even become more, because they really encourage the SMEs with the smaller resources to take a huge step to go to a totally different market and cultural and language environment to do the business," she said.
Monday marks the 74th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Finnish president's China visit to enhance cooperation in green, healthcare sectors: official
