Business leaders and officials on Monday hailed the Chinese market as the key growth engine for Finnish companies, following the 6th China-Finland Committee for Innovative Business Cooperation Meeting in Beijing.
Co-hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the meeting serves as a long-standing mechanism to link companies, capital, and innovation between the two nations.
It was held during Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's four-day official visit to China, which commenced on Sunday.
"Like you mentioned, now 30 years in China, this is one of our most important markets and represents a very significant part of our revenue. This is also the biggest manufacturing hub for us and the biggest oversees R and D center for Kone, so in all ways a very important place for us. And we will of course continue to also invest in our local (factories),"said Oyj Jussi Herlin, Executive Vice Chair of the Board at Kone Corporation.
Marko Tiesmaki, the minister counselor at the Embassy of Finland in China, who has years of experience promoting bilateral business cooperation, shared his insights into the opportunities Finnish companies see in the Chinese market.
"We have about 20 Finnish companies who have joined this delegation and this delegation organization came quite at short notice. They had to do last minute changes into their calendar so they could join this delegation. So I would say this alone already is a very good example of how committed our companies are to the China market," Tiesmaki said.
During the event, Chinese and Finnish companies signed a number of cooperation agreements that spanned cutting-edge sectors such as digital transformation, green and low-carbon development, and medical health.
"We are looking for a different type of collaboration, so equity is one thing and then manufacturing services. For advanced manufacturing of our product and for global supply and a commercial production of the product. And then third one is clinical trials. The pivotal trial, phase three trial to be conducted also in China and eventually, of course, getting the product to the markets as well," said Juha Yrjanheikki, CEO of Aurealis Therapeutics.
"We're seeing a market shift as well. There is more focus on the digitalization of services as well as the growth of modernization of existing building stock.I think this will be the biggest growth motor for the real estate industry and for us as well in the coming decade," said Herlin.
Finnish business leaders hail Chinese market as key growth engine
