RIYADH: Business Finland says Saudi Vision 2030 has unlocked new areas for potential collaboration between Finland and the Kingdom, with the government agency aiming to expand Saudi-Finish business cooperations further.
“With Vision 2030 now and this massive transformation which is happening in the country we believe this unlocked new areas of potential collaboration between the two countries and Finland can be an excellent partner to the Kingdom to achieve the Vision 2030 goals and objectives,” Nabil Mohamed, Business Finland senior adviser, said during an interview with Arab News.
Mohamed and fellow senior adviser of Business Finland Mudar Al-Ani highlighted their mission to expand Finish businesses in Saudi Arabia across sectors such as digital transformation.
“We are looking to see more Finish companies present here (Saudi Arabia) in the market and also more Saudi companies present in Finland as well,” Mohamed said.
“We have strong ties from a long time ago with Saudi Arabia, we started maybe late (in the) 1960s. Our large companies have been present in the market from a long time ago, an obvious example is Nokia,” he added.
In the last two years, despite COVID-19 limitations, business collaboration between Saudi Arabia and Finland has witnessed new growth.
“I think 2022 and 2023 were a very special time in strengthening the special ties that we have between the two countries, and the effort has been paved hand-in-hand with our embassy, of course, and with our counterparts from the Saudi side as well,” Mohamed explained.
In November 2022, Saudi Arabia and Finland agreed to form a bilateral organization to boost the SR1.9 billion ($510 million) trading relationship between the two countries.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Federation of Saudi Chambers and the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Helsinki to establish a joint Saudi-Finnish Business Council.
At the same time, the Federation of Saudi Chambers signed an MoU with Business Finland around financing and promoting trade and investment between the two countries.
The MoU mainly focused on technology, digitalization, energy, circular economy, mining, transport and logistics services, healthcare, and water.
“If we look to Business Finland’s main goals I would say is to help Finish companies grow globally that means really facilitating the right environment, giving them the right advice to enter the Saudi market also to connect them to the right market opportunities,’ Al-Ani said, adding that Business Finland works with companies to help them “find solutions for the future, working with them on R&D (research and development) phases and with their counterparts in Saudi Arabia.”
Al-Ani added that they aim to thrive in the “Public-Private Sector Partnership between Saudi Arabia and Finland.”
He explained that there are currently many large companies that have been strongly present in the Kingdom for years as well as smaller firms active in the market.
“Finland has also been the global leader in some other sectors like (the) mining industry, logistics — circular economy, of course, is a very important area to collaborate (in) and capacity building, which includes education, training,” Mohamed said.
“In the Kingdom, there are many new areas of potential collaboration between the two countries of course digital transformation is the main pillar across all different sectors,” he added.
Looking forward into the future, Al-Ani expressed that in the next five years, Business Finland hopes to see more knowledge transfer and capacity building between the two countries.
