Finnish businesses look forward to strengthened cooperation with their Chinese partners following Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's China visit, according to Juha Tuominen, chairman of FinnCham China Beijing.
Orpo is paying an official visit to China from Jan. 25 to 28 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Tuominen highlighted that Finnish businesses are excited about the active exchanges and hope to advance partnerships with Chinese businesses.
"In two years, we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of Finland-China trade relations. Just last year, we marked the 75th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. So, Finland and China, and Finnish and Chinese companies share a long history of collaboration. From the Finnish companies' perspective, we are very excited to see that this discussion and dialogue between Finland and China is active and is good. In terms of expectations for this visit, I would say the biggest expectation would be -- from the business community -- to even further strengthen the existing collaboration and find new ways to take it even further," he said.
Regarding rising uncertainties caused by geopolitical issues, Tuominen expressed confidence that global businesses will overcome the difficulties by diversifying supply chains and strengthening multilateral cooperation.
"When it comes to supply chains nowadays, the key word is diversification. So, for several years now, we have seen this trend that companies are sort of dividing any risk regarding supply chains by diversifying supply chains. This is actually happening everywhere. In the current geopolitical environment, sometimes it's difficult to forecast what it will look like three months from now, let alone a year from now. And this something that really makes it difficult for companies on the strategic level to be able to plan and implement. So, it's about joint discussion and cooperation, and openness. And I'm sure the supply chain challenges will be overcome," he said.
Tuominen also stressed the growing potential for Finland-China cooperation, particularly in green development, digital economy, healthcare, and winter sports.
"I hope to see the business collaboration and cooperation go even further and deeper. We've talked a lot about the sustainable and circular economy industries. There is a lot of room for further cooperation in those fields. I cannot leave out the information and communications technology (ICT) and digitalization. For example, the digitalization rate of Finnish healthcare is very high. Another field has been related to winter sports," Tuominen said.
Finnish businesses expect deeper cooperation with China following PM's visit: commerce chamber chief
