Finnish Ambassador to the Philippines, Saija Nurminen, is with Honorary Consul of Finland in Cebu, Jose Franco Soberano, during a recent trip in Cebu, where the former talks about Finnish firms wanting to invest in the country. | Morexette Marie Erram
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Owing to its economic growth, Finnish firms are eyeing to invest in the Philippines, particularly in green energy, sustainability and mobility sectors.
This was revealed by the newest Finnish Ambassador to the Philippines, Saija Nurminen, during a recent trip in Cebu.
For two days, Nurminen visited Cebu as part of Finland and the Philippines’ objectives to strengthen bilateral relations as well as spur economic activities between the two countries.
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She was accompanied by Honorary Consul of Finland in Cebu, Jose Franco Soberano.
“As you might know, we reopened our Embassy in the Philippines four years ago…One of the reasons most, of course, that this part of the world will be where the growth will happen,” Nurminen said in a press conference.
The Ambassador revealed to the media that there’s a growing interest of Finland-based companies wanting to tap into the Philippines’ growth.
Specifically, firms involved in waste-to-energy and sustainable technological solutions for meteorological services, construction and engineering, and mobility.
“We believe that we really have compatible solutions which we will like to see everywhere in the world,” Nurminen added.
For his part, Soberano, welcomed Finland’s plans to invest in the country.
“Finland is really seriously looking to invest with us here in the right industry. So I’m just very excited because I think we’re still scratching the surface, so there’s more that we can do between the Philippines and Finland,” he said.
Other collaborations
Finland is also looking to collaborate further with the Philippines in other areas like education, tourism and labor.
According to Nurminen, Finland is mulling to hire more skilled and blue-collared workers to address labor shortage in their country.
“Because of our demographics, we have labour shortage and we are foreseeing labor shortage in wide areas,” explained Nurminen.
In turn, their Minister of Labor is expected to visit the country this January, with a delegation composed of recruitment agencies, to start negotiations.
Aside from skilled workers, Finland also wanted to hire Filipino professionals with backgrounds on information technology (IT), green energy, as well as healthcare.
In terms of education, the Finnish government planned to invite their universities to kickstart student exchange programs.
“There is not that many students, There is not many exchange programs, but that is something that Finnish universities, for example, would want to change,” said Nurminen.
They also wanted to tap into Finnish airline companies to look into the possibility of mounting flights to the Philippines.