National Assembly Chairman's visit to Finland opens new era of cooperation

Officials and staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in Finland and representatives of the Finnish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee welcomed Speaker of the Parliament Vuong Dinh Hue at Vantaa airport. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

On the occasion of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue's official visit to Finland at the invitation of Finnish Parliament Speaker Anu Vehvilainen, VNA correspondents in Europe had an interview with Vietnamese Ambassador to Finland Dang Thi Hai Tam about bilateral relations as well as the significance of the visit and prospects for cooperation in the coming time.

According to Ambassador Dang Thi Hai Tam, Vietnam and Finland have maintained and actively developed their traditional, loyal and friendly relationship over the past 48 years since January 25, 1973.

The Embassy of Finland was established in Hanoi in 1974 and Vietnam opened its Embassy in Finland in 2005.

Finland has actively supported Vietnam in its struggle for national independence and reunification in the past, as well as supporting Vietnam in its national construction and development today.

The two countries actively support each other at international multilateral forums. Finland considers Vietnam an important partner in the Southeast Asian region.

For more than four decades, Finland has always considered Vietnam one of its priority partners in allocating unconditional non-refundable development assistance with a total value of more than half a billion euros.

Finland's assistance to Vietnam goes into very practical areas such as building clean water systems, poverty reduction, resource exploitation and conservation, climate change adaptation, education and training...

With Vietnam's remarkable economic and social progress, Finland is pleased to assess that your development assistance to Vietnam has been effectively implemented.

As Vietnam reaches the development threshold of a lower-middle-income country, the relationship between the two countries enters a transitional period, gradually shifting from development cooperation to equal partnership and mutually beneficial business cooperation.

Economic cooperation is the top priority in bilateral relations today. Import and export turnover between the two countries has increased continuously over the years, although the absolute value is not very large due to Finland's population of just over 5.5 million.

In 2020, two-way trade turnover reached 337.4 million USD, of which Vietnam imported 196.6 million USD and exported 140.8 million USD.

Regarding investment, as of June 2021, Finland had 29 effective projects with registered capital of 23,632 million USD, ranking 70/140 countries and territories investing directly in Vietnam.

Ambassador Dang Thi Hai Tam said that in the coming time, the two sides need to fully exploit the complementarity of the two economies for a new stage in economic development.

Finland is a country with the top innovation index in Europe with new technologies, in line with the development trend of the world economy.

Vietnam has a young workforce, manufacturing capabilities, a network of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) covering the globe, and peaceful foreign relations with all countries in the world. These factors will help goods produced in Vietnam using Finnish technology to reach all over the world.

In January 2021, the Framework Agreement on the implementation of Finland's public investment support tool in Vietnam took effect, according to which the Finnish Government will support up to 100 million euros for Finnish enterprises cooperating with Vietnam in areas where Finland is strong such as environmental technology (waste treatment into electricity, clean energy...), smart cities, digital transformation solutions, healthcare, training, new technology...

The number of Vietnamese students studying in Finland annually, nearly 2,500 people, and the Vietnamese community in Finland of more than 10,000 people, will be important bridges to maintain and develop bilateral relations between the two countries in the coming time.

Finland is also a successful startup destination for a number of young Vietnamese entrepreneurs. Finland is also a place where Vietnamese workers can aim for jobs in the fields of agriculture and nursing.

Since 2020, some localities in Finland have started implementing a program to create free study opportunities for qualified Vietnamese high school students to study in Finland in Finnish with the purpose of long-term residence and work to compensate for the labor shortage caused by population aging.

The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also implementing a talent attraction program (Talentplus) targeting the Vietnamese market to attract human resources in the fields of information technology, artificial intelligence, high technology... for Finnish businesses.

Regarding parliamentary relations, over the years, the National Assembly of Vietnam and Finland have maintained relations through the exchange of a number of delegations of leaders and agencies of the National Assembly.

The Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly visited Finland in 1993; the Chairman of the Finnish Parliament visited Vietnam in 2010.

Within the framework of multilateral cooperation, the two sides maintain contact, coordination and mutual support at regional and international parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP).

Referring to the visit of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, Ambassador Dang Thi Hai Tam emphasized that the visit of the Vietnamese National Assembly delegation led by National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue has very important political significance, being the first visit of a key leader of the Party and State of Vietnam to the European region since the 13th Party Congress and the end of the 1st Session of the 15th National Assembly.

According to the Ambassador, this visit of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue to Finland aims to implement the policy of the 13th National Party Congress, expanding people-to-people diplomacy - one of the three pillars of comprehensive and modern diplomacy. In addition to mobilizing friends to soon ratify the Investment Protection Agreement between the European Union and Vietnam (EVIPA), the visit contributes to building relations at the key leadership level of Vietnam with other countries.

The diplomatic goal of serving economic development is also the focus of the visit; through promoting bilateral relations between Vietnam and Finland in particular and Vietnam's relations with the Nordic region in general, Vietnam will attract new, leading-edge, environmentally friendly technologies for the cause of socio-economic development in Vietnam.

In addition to maintaining and strengthening traditional areas of cooperation, the two countries' leaders will discuss ways to more effectively exploit the complementarity between the two economies.

The current visit also contributes to mobilizing resources from Europe to support Vietnam in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and achieving the dual goal of economic development through attracting new investment and cooperation projects to Vietnam.

The Vietnamese community in Finland is very honored and proud to welcome National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue to Finland. The visit is a source of encouragement, motivation, and care from the Party and State for the Vietnamese people in Finland.

Ambassador Dang Thi Hai Tam emphasized that the visit of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue to Finland will open a new era of cooperation between the two countries, whereby the two sides will strengthen the connection of the two countries' dynamic economic sectors for common development and mutual benefit.

Currently, Finnish businesses and organizations have many initiatives and solutions that can help Vietnam develop in a pioneering direction in the global economy or have solutions to further improve the efficiency of Vietnam's economic sectors and fields.

Vietnam is also an attractive market for Finnish businesses. The frequent meetings between the President of the National Assembly and members of the delegation with the highest leaders of Finland, business leaders and leaders of the vibrant economic regions in Finland will promote the implementation of many projects in the coming time.

According to VNA