Today’s meeting with Kai Mykkänen, Finland’s recently appointed Minister for Foreign Trade and Development
Together with some other people from business and politics I spend early evening with Minister Kai Mykkänen. Some of the discussion points were:
- Development of EU in terms of Brexit, situation in Turkey and lengthy crisis in Ukraine
- Sanctions against Russia
- Finland & plenty of strengths and question how to boost investments here?
- Business opportunities in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Norway and how to offer right solutions also in Africa
- TTIP – Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Kai will lead a business delegation from Finnish companies to Ukraine on the 15th of September. A focus area of the journey is ENERGY TECHNOLOGY and for Ukraine the needed funding is provided by World Bank Group. Energy and heating solutions always require: 1. Advanced materials like steel and stainless steel, 2. Engineering know how, 3. High quality components like valves and tubes and 4. Sophisticated steering and monitoring systems. There are number of Finnish companies offering high quality products and services under those four points.
The Minister and the whole Government are working hard to enhance Finland’s export and this is very good so! Anyhow, the politicians can only help and the tough work to negotiate and close contacts needs to be done by companies, especially their sales people and management.
Picture: Minister Kai Mykkänen in the middle and Petteri Korpioja, CEO of Ariterm Oy on the right. Ariterm Oy produces small and middle size heating boilers up to 6 MW.
