|
Indo-Finnish
economic co-operation needs further deepening
Bilateral relations between India and Finland
have traditionally been warm and friendly. Finland appointed
a resident Ambassador to India in 1949 while the Indian embassy
was opened in Helsinki in 1968. Recent years are marked by
efforts from both sides to build up a substantive relationship,
especially in the political and economic fields.
| ‘We want partners
who will adapt and market our technology’ |
|
INTERVIEW — BENJAMIN
BASSIN
|
 |
The Finnish Ambassador to India, Benjamin Bassin,
sees scope for enhancing co-operation in hitherto untapped
areas. Excerpts from an interview with Huma Siddiqui:
What are the areas that Finland is eyeing in
India?
Finland has electronic technology to offer. We can
provide technology for ports and airports; cargo-handling
equipment and crane-handling. A large Finnish company,
Kone, has another specialty to offer—escalators. However,
in India, the market will grow only in the the next
10 years or so when more supermarkets open.
What is the investment scenario like?
Our largest investment areas are in the manufacture
of diesel generator plants and elevators. In Chennai,
Kone has the largest maintenance systems in India. They
have brought in revolutionary technology where the engine
is built-in. There won’t be any more ugly boxes to hold
elevators.
Then there is a joint venture with Godrej and Fiskars
near Pune making knives and scissors. They are selling
well in India, though not as well as expected. Ahlstrom
has a joint venture in Chennai making boilers and carrying
out research in the energy-saving system for the pulp
and paper industry. There are almost 60 joint ventures
between Indian and Finnish companies.
Is there any significant co-operation in the IT sector?
Nokia is a well-known name in India, but it still
hasn’t invested in the production of handsets. They
feel the market is too small. However, Nokia has set
up networks for the operators. It has tie-ups with various
research institutions too.
We need software from India even though we are not a
big market. We are expanding our market now and there
is certainly a need to import software engineers for
a two-year contract. At present, Finnish companies are
outsourcing from India in all areas of software.
Are you looking at technology transfers in the industrial
sector?
We are hopeful of finding partners in Indian industry
to adapt and market Finnish technologies. Finland was
forced to develop effective environment technologies
since we have over 1.8 lakh lakes that are very sensitive
to environmental change. This has resulted in the development
of technologies for water treatment, waste water treatment
and solid waste management. We have a large selection
of environment technology aimed at producing energy
from urban waste and technology for water purification.
According to studies done in India, there is tremendous
scope for water treatment technologies. Most of the
water supply is from groundwater sources and only a
limited number of urban centres have access to centralised
water treatment facilities. We look to some kind of
tie-up in these areas too.
Have you identified areas for co-operation in the
social sector?
Finnish companies can provide technologies that
are also cheap—for solid waste compacting, landfill
leachate treatment, materials for covering landfills,
and solid waste treatment plants.
Some of the companies have also developed technologies
for biological treatment of segregated municipal solid
wastes. These include composting technologies and anaerobic
digestion. Biogas from the anaerobic digesters are being
used for generating heat and electricity for municipalities
in Finland, which we hope to sell to India.
What are the other areas?
Clean energy technologies. Finland is among the top
biomass users. The share of biomass in primary energy
is bigger than the share of nuclear power. Our biggest
achievement has been in large-scale units, but we have
technological potential to develop it for small-scale
biomass use. We also have expertise in preserving tropical
forests. If and when India would like to have foreign
players in this area, we would like to participate.
|
To ensure regular and meaningful
bilateral exchange of views on issues of mutual interest and
concern, annual foreign office consultations were instituted
between the two countries under a Protocol signed in November
1996. The first two rounds of consultations took place in
New Delhi in December 1997 and in Helsinki in July 1999, respectively.
India and Finland have expressed keenness to increase the
level of trade and economic co-operation and take the level
of trade much beyond the present level of $200 million. During
the 12th Meeting of the Indo-Finnish Joint Economic Commission
held in 2000 in Helsinki, the two sides decided that an Agreement
for Promotion and Protection of Bilateral Investments will
soon be signed. The two sides also considered the feasibility
of signing an Agreement or memorandum of understanding for
co-operation in the field of science & technology and
a similar MoU on co-operation in environment.
Both sides also noted the ongoing co-operation between India
and Finland in energy and power sectors and emphasised the
need to deepen co-operation. India has welcomed Finnish technologies
in various sectors, like in modernisation of Indian ports
and shipping. An invitation for exchange of delegations in
the IT sector has also been suggested.
Indo-Finnish bilateral trade at present is more in favour
of Finland from where India imports paper boards, manufactures,
newsprint, organic chemicals, non-ferrous metals, etc. Fifty
per cent of India’s imports from Finland consist of machinery/electronic
goods and professional instruments. Major exports from India
are garments, carpets, manufactures of metals, handicrafts
and gems & jewellery.
The main items of imports from Finland are pulp and paper,
machinery, transport equipment, basic manufactures, crude
materials, metallic ores, chemicals, plastics, iron and steel
and power generating machinery. Exports items are coffee,
tea, spices, articles of apparel and clothing accessories,
textile yarn, miscellaneous manufactured items, diamonds and
jewellery.
Traditionally, Finnish trade, including that for green technologies,
has been limited to the Baltic Sea countries and other countries
of Europe. Only limited trade has been carried out with countries
outside this circle. Finland’s export during 2000 to non-European
countries was limited to 21 per cent, with Asia accounting
for only 13 per cent. Similarly, Finland’s import from non-European
countries was also 21 per cent, with Asia accounting for 14
per cent. The only two non-European countries that appeared
in the list of top 10 trade partners were the US and Japan.
Though Finpro has two offices in India—in Mumbai and New Delhi—trade
between Finland and India has been very small. Trade from
India to Finland totalled Rs 355.71 crore and from Finland
to India was Rs 1,326.28 crore during 2000. This was less
than 1 per cent of Finland’s total international trade.
|
