India and Finland today resolved to boost cooperation in a range of areas, including trade and investment, energy and information technology, Finland & India decide to boost ties during talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Finnish counterpart Timo Soini.

The two ministers reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and agreed to ramp up cooperation in trade, holding that there is huge scope for its expansion.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Swaraj and Soini agreed to deepen cooperation in mutually beneficial spheres like trade and investment, IT, new and renewable energy, science and technology, culture and people- to-people contact.

“The two Ministers held discussions on various aspects of bilateral ties as well as important regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

It said the discussions focused on building cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, vocational education, science and technology, renewable energy, culture and tourism.

Trade ties between the two countries are on an upswing and volume of bilateral trade has crossed over USD 1 billion.

Around 30 Indian companies have invested in Finland in IT, healthcare, hospitality and automotive sectors while over 100 Finnish companies have operations in India in energy, textiles, power plants and electronics sectors.

In 2016, Finland was India’s 60th largest trading partner globally, and the 10th largest within the EU. Similarly, in 2016, India was Finland’s 23rd largest trading partner globally, and the fifth largest within Asia.

According to official figures, Finnish companies invested USD 419 million between April 2000 and July 2017.

Large Finnish manufacturers like Kone, Huhtamaki, Salcomp, Ahlstrom have set up manufacturing facilities in different parts of India.

Soini also delivered a lecture at the Global Conference on Cyber Space here.

 

Source: BusinessWorld