Vietnam and Finland established diplomatic relations on January 25, 1973. The two countries have enjoyed fine traditional relations of friendship and fruitful cooperation in various fields since then. On the occasion of the New Year 2014, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed H.E. Mr Kimmo Lähdevirta, Ambassador of Finland to Vietnam, on the cooperation relations between the two countries over the past years. Nguyen Mai reports.
Could you please tell us the achievements in the cooperation programmes between Finland and Vietnam in 2013? How has the National Strategy of Finland to Vietnam in 2013-2016 been deployed so far?
The Country Strategy is based on the principles of Finland’s Development Policy Programme, approved by the government in 2012. The policy emphasizes a human rights based approach to development, meaning that all people have an equal right to influence and participate in the definition and implementation of development. In practice, this means that also the poor and marginalised groups should be included as stakeholders in the development cooperation programmes supported by Finland.
Here, the overall goal of our development cooperation is to support Vietnam in its goal to become a modern, industrialised society by 2020. The cooperation is focused on two specific result areas: 1) improved basis for a knowledge based society, and 2) sustainable use and management of natural resources and improved climate sustainability.
The cooperation is mainly implemented through three bilateral programmes: one in the water and sanitation sector, one in the forest sector and one in the innovation sector. These programmes have mostly progressed as scheduled and have been able to deliver the planned results.
The year 2013 was a milestone in the sense that all three main bilateral programmes have now begun their final phases. As Vietnam has become a lower middle income country, Finland is gradually looking for a transition from bilateral development cooperation to a broader cooperation including trade, education and science and culture.
An important vehicle for this change is enhanced partnerships between institutions and universities, private sector players and civil societies. These kinds of partnerships have been supported through different cooperation instruments. The idea is, of course, that the partnerships will continue beyond the initial support and strengthen the ties and cooperation between our countries.
Vietnam and Finland have had 41 years of diplomatic relations. What should Vietnam and Finland do to become comprehensive partners?
We are now in a transition phase, where in addition to making sure that the ongoing development cooperation programmes produces lasting results, we have to do everything possible to ensure a successful transition to a more broad based, mutually beneficial cooperation.
As mentioned, I strongly believe that the way to achieve this is through the establishment of mutually beneficial partnerships between companies and institutions in both countries. We already have some very good examples, such as the cooperation in the hydro-meteorological sector between the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Hydro-Meteorological Service of Vietnam on the institutional level, and Vaisala Company and HYMETCO on the company level.
However, we still need to do more to activate companies. Authorities and business associations in both countries will have to do their best to increase awareness about the possibilities. To do that, on the Finnish side we have formed “Team Finland”, comprising here in Vietnam of our export promotion organization Finpro, representatives of the three bilateral cooperation programmes, and strengthened by the Finnpartnership programme (http://ift.tt/KSgerI).
Last year we organised a tour of business partnership seminars in ten cities all over Vietnam, and this year we will organise a Vietnam seminar in Finland, in addition to the work that we do here in Vietnam.
As our economies are highly complementary and as awareness of this increases, I am convinced that we can achieve very good results in the coming years!
Đăng ký: VietNam News
