Finland is one of the leading countries in the world in the field of clean technologies, especially industrial sewage treating technology and renewable energy development technology. Not only that, the country is also well known for its sustainable development of urban and rural areas as well as its comprehensive solutions to conserve and assess the environment’s condition, control air pollution and protect water sources.

The clean technology companies in Finland are currently world leaders in several key areas of the industry such as bio-energy, clean industrial process and energy efficiency.

Finland’s leading position has gained internationally recognition for quite a while. Since 2000, according to the economic indicators in sustainable environmental development provided by World Economic Forum, Finland has three times ranked the first in the 146 countries on the development and achievement of environmental sustainability. With Clean technology Organization of Finland (Cleantech Finland), customers, partners, investors and shareholders all over the world are offered a tool which enables them easy access to facilities in the field of clean technology with high expertise level. In Finland, the clean technology sector alone has 2,000 companies and comprises of many diverse fields. One of Finland's objectives is to develop the clean technology sector into a key industry of the country.

According to the experts’ opinions, Viet Nam is among the top ten countries which have been most severely affected by climate change in recent years. Aware of the fact, Viet Nam has paid much attention and put a lot of efforts to solve the issue of energy efficiency. In particular, cooperating with and becoming a partner of Finland in the field of renewable energy and clean technology bears a crucial meaning in Viet Nam’s strategic development in the field of clean technologies and energy development in the foreseeable future.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan - Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the cooperation and support of the Finnish companies will be a significant assistance to Viet Nam in the process of strategic implementation of Viet Nam’s national program in response to climate change, environmental protection, and will contribute greatly to further enhancement of commercial production capacity in the direction of advanced and clean technology application for sustainable development.

Mrs. Anni Sinnemakin - Minister of Labour of Finland, stated that clean technology companies in Finland are looking for direct partners in Viet Nam to cooperate on solving environmental problems, thus Viet Nam could expect to receive support in dealing with environment and energy challenges that it is now encountering. Furthermore Finland hopes to develop extensive cooperation with other companies in Viet Nam in the field of energy and environment such as waste water management, renewable energy development and use, energy efficiency, water and waste water treatment, application of clean process, materials and development of clean products.

In addition to Mrs. Sinnemakin’s opinion Mr. Pietro Karjalainen - Finnish Commercial Counsellor in Viet Nam also emphasized that the goal of Finland in Viet Nam is to establish cooperative commercial relations between the two countries' enterprises; the cooperation with Finnish companies is likely to bring employment opportunities as well as knowledge and most advanced technology to Viet Nam. Finland is able to bring to Viet Nam the necessary technologies, business models and management experiences needed for sustainable development.

Besides, Viet Nam is considered to be having an urgent demand for energy efficiency technology. The fact that Finnish clean technology companies are targeting direct partners in Viet Nam, seeking for collaboration to solve the current challenges on environment and energy that Viet Nam is facing could be creating a favourable conditions for our country to gain experience and take advantage of their support.

Mr. Santtu Hulkkonen – Executive Director of cleantech, Finland said that the cooperation in building sustainable environmental solution and technology, especially in the area of water source management had been a notable discussion between the two countries recently. We are very pleased that the cooperation between two countries in this particular field is growing more extensively, which could be clearly seen in the Commitment to energy and environment cooperation program in the area of Mekong River signed on August 17th 2010. The program will be the main financial sponsor for the majority of business projects. Recently on September 7th 2010 Vinachem of Viet Nam and Kemira Company of Finland have signed a memorandum on cooperation in searching for the most appropriate chemicals for industrial and urban wastewater.

In addition, Viet Nam has great potential in renewable energy and clean energy such as wind power, solar power... Therefore, Finnish companies have claimed to have been ready to cooperate and share experiences with Viet Nam in clean technology development and effective exploitation of renewable energy sources such as wind power, solar power and biogas.

By Thu An