Jiangsu-Finland Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference was held in Jiangbei New Area (pilot FTZ) on the morning of November 12. Pasi Hellman, Consul General of Finland in Shanghai, Sun Jin, Deputy Director General of Jiangsu Department of Commerce, Ding Aimin, Director of Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and Director of the Port Office, as well as Lin Qikun, Deputy Director of Jiangbei New Area Administrative Committee attended the event.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Finland. The conference thus aims to promote open cooperation for development with mutual benefit through exchange of ideas on new orientations, trends, opportunities and prospects for future collaborations between Jiangsu and Finland. The Finnish business delegation present is composed of nearly 90 people from more than 40 Finnish companies, one of the largest Finnish business delegations in China.

Sun Jin said that thanks to the visit by the Finnish business delegation to Jiangsu this time, enterprises in Jiangsu were able to have this vis-à-vis dialogue with their Finnish counterparts to discuss cooperation. He was confident that the conference would be a milestone event for the two sides to enhance mutual understanding and friendship. He said that given the solid foundation and huge potential for cooperation between Jiangsu and Finland, entrepreneurs from both sides present at the conference were inspired by a willful, reasonable and common reality-driven need to further strengthen cooperation.

Ding Aimin said that pivoting on the vision to build “a renowned city for innovation and a beautiful ancient capital”, Nanjing has been stepping up efforts to pursue high-quality development by building a high-level city with quality life and efficient governance, and to accelerate the formation of a growth mode with innovation as the major driving force. Finland is globally recognized as an innovative country, and cooperation between Nanjing and Finland in many areas bears broad prospects with great complementarity. In recent years, the two sides have witnessed smooth progress made in trade and economic cooperation, innovation, and people-to-people exchanges with fruitful results. The two sides can further strengthen cooperation and strive for common development with win-win results through mutual learning and better connectivity.

Lin Qikun began by advertising for the economic and social development in Jiangbei New Area, its institutional innovation, geographic location and business environment. Lin said, the strategic positioning of Jiangbei New Area of being an integration of “three areas and one platform” as well as its industrial layout of “two towns and one center” have made it a magnet for high-quality resources for innovation with unique industrial strength in the past five years. Finnish companies are given an open invitation to come to Jiangbei New Area for innovation initiatives, start-ups or further business development. Quality projects and high-end factors in particular, are welcomed in the Area to facilitate the high-quality development to scale a new height in Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing and Jiangsu at large. According to Lin, as early as in 2008, Jiangbei New Area began to accommodate Finnish companies to grow. The event this time would be a great opportunity to further tap the potential in technological and innovative collaborations between Jiangbei New Are and Finland.

 This conference was of great significance to numerous Finnish companies. As a country of innovation, Finland is home to a number of companies capable of offering solutions for advanced new energy, medical and environmental protection services, and these companies are also eager to work with fine companies in China to forge long-term partnership.

A session for free exchange was held following the speeches, in which 45 projects were dovetailed. Participating companies are from a variety of sectors including sports and leisure, energy and bioscience, food, and ICT. Being a world leader in circular economy, Finland is also able to offer many value-added services to Chinese companies in need.