| Economic and trade cooperation between Finland and China |
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| Thursday,July 31,2008 Posted: 15:47 BJT(0747 GMT) |
| From:Economic and Commercial Counselor's Office in Finland Article type:Original |
Finland and China have been enjoying longstanding and traditional friendship. The two countries established diplomatic relations as early as 1950. In 1953, the inter-governmental trade agreement was signed between the two sides, as the first of its kind in Europe. Over the years, the two nations have witnessed a continuously consolidated political relationship and an ever-developing trade and economic ties.
Finland has been China’s largest trade partner in Nordic region for the last four consecutive years, and Finland has also served as an important source of FDI and technology in North Europe. Meanwhile, China has been Finland’s largest trade partner in Asia.
According to Chinese statistics, bilateral trade in 2007 reached 10.36 billion US dollars, the 28.2% increase year on year. China’s export to Finland amounted to 6.56 billion USD, and import stood at 3.8 billion USD. China is Finland’s most important export market in Asia and the biggest import origin outside Europe.
Apart from trade, investment has also seen continuous and new developments. EK statistics shows that more than 260 Finnish enterprises have invested in China with total capital input of 7.8 billion Euro and annual turnover 10 billion Euro. Finnish investments in China are concentrated in IT, forestry, paper and machinery industries, etc. Nokia, UPM, Metso, Stora Enso, Kone, Outokumpu, among others, are the key players. More and more SMEs are showing enthusiasm in exploring the Chinese market as well.
Chinese investment in Finland is still rather modest, yet Chinese companies are displaying stronger interest in Finland. COSCO had established a joint venture with John Nurminen Group for more than 10 years, and new comers including BYD, CCCMC and Nordic China Center have also successfully established their business in Finland.
Given the traditionally sound political relations, complementarities between the two economies, and great passion of the two business communities for cooperation, the bilateral economic and trade cooperation is promising and enjoys enormous potential.
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