Anne Palkamo (left) and Pikko Haavisto agree Finnish SMEs can benefit by partnering with Hong Kong firms to enter the China market

There are huge possibilities for a tripartite alliance among companies from Finland, the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, according to two representatives from Finland's trade promotion and technology associations.    
 
Pirkko Haavisto, Special Adviser, Trade Policy and International Relations of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), and Anne Palkamo, Executive Director, Communications, Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes), were recently in Hong Kong and southern China to explore opportunities.
 
"There is great interest in China back home in Finland because of the huge market opportunities," Ms Palkamo said. "There are already a lot of Finnish companies in China such as Nokia, and Nokia suppliers like Perlos, Aspocomp and Elcoteq which produces electronic parts. One area I think we could co-operate in is in the import of skilled talents, especially in information and communications technologies in which Finland is very strong."
 
Valuable players

Ms Palkamo works for Tekes, the main public funding organisation for research and development. Most importantly, Tekes offers partners from abroad a gateway to the key technology players in Finland.
 
Ms Haavisto, on the other hand, is special adviser to EK, an organisation with a membership of 16,000 companies contributing to over 70 per cent of Finland's GDP and over 95 per cent of Finland's exports. EK also helps to promote trade and economic co-operation relations in different countries, especially in emerging markets like China, India and Russia.
 
"EK recently organised two very successful high level business meetings in Helsinki, the Asia Europe Business Forum (AEBF10) and the EU-China Business Summit. These were attended by over 300 people, and half were from China. Networking opportunities are very important and that is why the business seminar organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in Helsinki in November is so important to highlight opportunities in the huge Chinese market," Ms Haavisto said.
 
"China is developing so fast that business people need to get more accurate information. This is a big event and we welcome this initiative which will help to highlight opportunities and challenges in this vast market." (Hong Kong and Guangdong: Your Partners for Success in China)
 
The way forward

As with most SMEs around the world, Ms Haavisto said that Finnish SMEs lack the funds and the resources to access the China market. "The best way forward is to network, build bridges or have joint ventures with Hong Kong partners to enter the China market," Ms Haavisto said.
 
She added that the emphasis is not just on production in China's factories but also on R&D among the three markets. "At the moment, we tend to keep R&D at home in Finland but there is a need to adapt products to the mainland and Hong Kong markets."
 
Both Ms Palkamo and Ms Haavisto said they were very impressed by Hong Kong which is one of the leading service economies in the world. "Finland is developing in this area. "We can take the example of Hong Kong's expertise in a host of services such as legal, financial, accounting, marketing and design,"both of them agreed.
 
Related links
Confederation of Finnish Industries
EK Tekes