China, Finland vow to boost bilateral economic ties

Chinese Ambassador Chen Li on Monday predicted with a strong conviction that the China-Finland economic relations would soar soon to a new height fuelled by the mutual benefits and the win-win situation the two countries enjoy, as long as their governments and enterprises continue to work together and in accord.

Li made the projection in his address to a ceremony organised at the Chinese embassy in Helsinki to mark the launch of a newly-formed association of Chinese enterprises in Finland.

“China and Finland are different in size and social system, but our goal is the same – to bring benefits to the peoples of the two polities through close trade and economic cooperation,” said the Chinese envoy. “I believe as long as the two governments and the enterprises of the two countries work closely together, our economic relations based on mutual benefits and a win-win principle will make a new leap.”

Li said his country will continue with opening up its market and expanding international trade and exchange of investments, although, he said, his country has been facing trade barriers mainly in the forms of protectionism and trade war from certain countries that put China’s economic goals at risk.

Yet, he said, “the Chinese government has been consistently advocating for trade liberalisation and economic globalisation.”

In his very optimistic speech, Li also expressed the hope that China as well as Finland and other countries will soon see a well-grounded rule-based global multilateral trading system in the near future, as it will ensure economic prosperity.

He, for the second time told the session that although China is facing the trade barriers of protectionism and trade wars, “we will continue to open up our market and expand trade and investment exchanges with the rest of the world. This is the best answer to the risks generating from protectionism and trade wars.”

During the ceremony, Association of Chinese Enterprises in Finland Chairperson Zhu Ziqi, who was in the chair of the function, and Permanent Secretary to the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment Jari Gustafsson jointly unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion.

Zhu Ziqi is an eminent business expert, who has been runing the operations of the Chinese Zhongguancun Science Park in Finland since 2012. Since then he has helped two major Chinese investments come to Finland.

About 100 guests, mostly representing Finnish businesses, attended the ceremony. Representatives from the Confederation of Finnish Industries, Business Finland, the Finland Chamber of Commerce, Finland-China Trade Association, Helsinki Business Hub, the City of Helsinki, the City of Vantaa, and the City of Espoo as well as Chinese and Finnish enterprises were present on the occasion, among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Jari Gustafsson pointed out the emerging worry about Chinese investment in Europe, saying many people want to know how much the Chinese investors want to buy, reported the news agency Xinhua.

“That doesn’t mean we are not welcoming them,” he said. “In Finland especially we have just seen the beginning of the Chinese investment and we are looking forward to seeing much more in the future,” he told Xinhua.

According to the Xinhua report, Gustafsson, a former Finnish ambassador to China, said he believed the newly set up association would provide a good platform for the Chinese companies to get together, exchange their views, and help them build network with the Finnish business community, instead of standing alone.

Contrary to some of the European concerns that Chinese companies tend to buy technologies and then simply leave, the ones that have invested in Finland stay and create job opportunities, said Ziqi Zhu.

He told Xinhua that the association members were planning to invite a Finnish third party institute to assess what benefits the Chinese investments have brought to Finland. He believed the result of such an independent research will appease the worriers.

Finnish politicians and representatives of local business organisations, however, voiced their willingness to receive more Chinese investments and to help Chinese high-tech companies enter the European market via Finland.

Led by Zhongguancun Development Group, COSCO Shipping Lines, and Huawei, the association comprises some 20 enterprises that are mainly high tech innovative companies.

There has been an increasing interest among the Chinese companies to invest in Finland in recent years. According to Ambassador Li, the total amount of Chinese investments made in Finland, covering ICT, software, cleantech, bioeconomy, and high-end manufacturing, now stands at nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars

Antti Aumo, head of Invest in Finland, recalled that the accumulated value of Chinese investments to Finland from 1950 to 2012 was no more than 100 million US dollars, whereas the year 2016 alone witnessed a total Chinese investment of 6.9 billion euros. The focus has shifted from sales of products to high-tech innovation.

Aumo described a typical business cycle, as the investments bring competitive solutions and products back to China and achieve a win-win result: “Finnish companies get more profit from the sales, thus increasing their evaluation, and the Chinese companies will also get more profits as the competitiveness of their products is strengthened.”

The Chinese business could also expand their business to the rest of the European market via Finnish businesses or Finnish partners, he added.

Aumo expressed the hope that more Chinese high-tech companies would enter the European market “utilising Finland as their foothold”.