Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka . — Photo baocongthuong

HCM CITY (VNS) —  Education, Cleantech and ICT have been on the top of the agenda during the visit of Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka between March 6 and 11 in Việt Nam.

Hosted by the Minister of Industry and Trade of Việt Nam Vũ Huy Hoàng, Minister Toivakka, accompanied by an extensive business delegation consisting mainly of Finnish experts, will discuss further cooperation.   

The aim of the visit is also to support the Finnish business delegation in its fact-finding and networking missions.

After visiting Hà Nội, the delegation will travel to HCM City and Bình Dương Province.

In HCM City, the minister and her delegation will visit Tôn Đức Thắng University, where she will give a lecture on education and innovation.

The minister and the delegation will meet her Vietnamese counterpart and participate in numerous events where Finnish and Vietnamese partners will sign cooperation agreements or launch new collaboration projects.

"Finland and Việt Nam share a mutual desire to develop their trade and economic relations. This visit provides an excellent opportunity to take further steps towards and strengthen relationship between our countries," Minister Toivakka said.

"I strongly believe that building partnerships between our institutions, companies and people will be at the core of our future relationship," she added.

Finland is known to be a dynamic society with particular expertise in technology and innovations. The country´s Cleantech and ICT solutions are global top-notch programmes.

Finland is also recognised as being one of the countries investing most heavily in research, development, innovation and education, an investment the country takes pride in and that has brought tangible results.

Việt Nam and Finland have strong, friendly relations that for decades have been based on traditional development cooperation. Now the aim is to strengthen and broaden the relationship and work towards increased trade and economic cooperation.

Bilateral trade has been growing steadily during the last few years, expanding by more than 30 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year.

There is potential for further growth under the future EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. VNS