By IANS,
Helsinki : Finnish companies are keen to boost bilateral trade with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and expand into new areas like energy and petrochemicals, WAM news agency has reported.
“The UAE is the biggest importer of Finnish products and 50 percent of Finland’s $65 billion of exports are transited through the UAE,” chief policy adviser of the Confederation of Finnish Industries Simo Karetie said Friday.
“We seek to boost our presence in the Gulf’s markets of engineering industries, contracting, paper manufacturing and construction equipment markets. Finnish companies are planning energy, petrochemical and aluminium plants in the Gulf,” Karetie told WAM in an interview.
According to Karetie, mobile phones and electronics topped the list of Finland’s exports followed by paper products, equipment and chemicals.
“Foreign labour has become a majority in Finland’s economy and there are plans to host more workers from other countries to meet increasing demands for labour in different sectors and industries,” unveiled Karetie.
The confederation is the leading Finnish business organisation in Finland representing about 16,000 member companies, of which 95 percent are small scale enterprises.