Sherine Nasr explores the new opportunities of Egyptian-Finnish economic cooperation To match strong political relations between Egypt and Finland, efforts are underway to boost economic ties -- especially now that the private sector has a growing role in Egypt's economy. To this end, Finland's Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Vayrynen came to town on a two-day visit last week, heading a senior business delegation. The group discussed business opportunities with officials and sought Egyptian commercial partners. He also attended the inauguration of his country's pavilion at the Cairo ICT 2008 Fair, where Finland -- the high-tech information society -- was the guest of honour. Tommi Nordberg, leader of the Finnish business delegation, referred to Egypt as an attractive trade and investment target for Finnish business. Companies in the delegation represented different sectors, including IT, environment technology, energy efficiency, meteorological, environmental and industrial measurement systems, as well as healthcare. Trade between the two sides began in the 1970s, and has grown steadily to reach remarkable growth over the past two years. In fact, Egypt is Finland's third largest trade partner in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with Egyptian exports to Finland coming at 14 million euros and goods in the other direction estimated at 240 million euros in 2006. "The volume of trade has further increased, and so have Finnish direct investment in the country," noted Vayrynen. In January 2005, Egyptian-Finnish economic relations were revived when Egypt evolved from being a developing country into a growing economy. In Helsinki, the two sides approved a transition strategy and action plan to cover the period between 2005 and 2007. "Egypt's ongoing economic development has given Finland the possibility to move from a donor country into more diverse forms of cooperation as a partner," Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul- Naga told an Egypt-Finland business seminar last week. During the event, sector-to-sector meetings were held to promote business partnerships. Moreover, representatives from the Finnish Business Partnership Programme (Finnpartnership) were present to streamline the match-making process. Finnpartnership's main goal is to channel business partnership initiatives from developing countries to companies in Finland and vice versa. While looking for investment opportunities in Egypt, Finland is also keen on stimulating more Egyptian business into the country. Vayrynen believes it is interesting to see how the two countries have succeeded in diversifying their cooperation from long-term development to a partnership between two market economies. Having adopted new technologies, the Finnish private sector in particular has been widely successful in promoting a culture of innovation. "I'd like to encourage Egyptian companies to take a close look at Finland as an investment destination," suggested Vayrynen. "Skilled labour, high environmental standards and high tech are among the aspects joint Finnish-Egyptian projects can benefit from." Before 2005, Finland was among the foremost donors to Egypt, cooperating in drinking water and waste water treatment projects, as well as the healthcare and agriculture sectors. In recent years, cooperation has also focussed on environmental issues, and Finland currently funds five major projects. According to Finland's Ambassador to Cairo Hannu Halinen, cooperation in the future will be supported through the embassy's local cooperation funds which have been operational since 1993, concession credits, new business partnership funds, NGO support and multilateral programmes. "The good thing about Finland as a donor country was that it had no political agenda and grants to Egypt had no ceiling," stated Hisham Youssef, from Lemcon, a Finnish company with construction experience in Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Operating in Egypt since 1993, Lemcon carried out several drinking water and sewage treatment projects in Damietta, 10th of Ramadan industrial city and Sharm El-Sheikh, among others. Although a "very poor country" 50 years ago, as Vayrynen put it, Finland developed into one of the best performing, most competitive and least corrupt economies worldwide. "In a nutshell, the Finnish model was not achieved through technological innovations alone, but through absolute transparency and diligent efforts to make progress in all aspects of life," noted the Finnish official.
