Wednesday, October 15, 2014: India is looking forward to collaborate with Finland as a part of the move to make the country self-dependent in the manufacturing sector and growing as a manufacturing hub. Finland is popular for knowledge and clean technology. The announcement of the new collaboration has come forward just ahead of President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Finland.
As per Hindu Business Line, some official sources said that, Finland is being viewed as a significant member of the European Union which has a great reserve of modern technology. Finland also views India as a market with huge potential for investment purposes in high technology sectors. Mukherjee is the first Indian president in last 26 years to visit Finland, officially. The sources added, Finland is also viewed as a reliable trade partner as they have maintained a green way in time of industrial revolution too. Trade figures with Finland are estimated up to $1.5 billion and more than 100 Finnish companies are already based in India, including the R&D sector.
India features in the list of those countries too which hosts the global centre of innovation, FinNode. FinNode in India focuses on clean technology, education, healthcare and innovation sectors. During the three-day visit of Mukherjee, which is beginning today, numerous agreements are expected to be signed which would include education, energy, fishing and other sectors, between government-to-government, business-to-business as well as institution-to-institution. While talking to PTI, some Finnish officials also said, Indo-Finnish partnership in science and technology are looking forward to higher prospects as opportunities are expanding to research organisations, technology companies and sponsors too.
Until World War II, Finland was largely dependent on farming and agriculture but then the country got completely transformed to an industry-focused society with main focus on education and research. The process followed in a way to focus first on primary education, then labour and capital-intensive manufacturing and then industrialisation which resulted in rapid growth of a knowledge-based economy in the country. Now Finland is seen as one of the most competitive economies in the world. The country has reached global markets and foreign trade is the most integral part of the business culture in the country.
