Minister Toivakka travels to the United States to promote Finnish cleantech

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Lenita Toivakka will travel to the United States to promote the exports of Finnish cleantech enterprises. The Team Finland trade mission will be in Los Angeles and Palo Alto from 18 to 21 March to market Finnish expertise in the region that is considered as one of the world’s most significiant concentration of clean energy, financing and research.

“It is no coincidence that I am leading an important trade mission to the United States. The importance of the United States, the world’s largest economy, to Finnish exports is continuously increasing, and many Finnish companies have invested there – to a value of up to 9.6 billion euros,” says Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Lenita Toivakka.

California’s economy is growing faster than the national average and as much as 120 billion dollars will be invested for the clean technology sector in California during the next five years. Finland and California both have a policy in place that aims in promoting business in clean technologies, are both considerable high-tech concentrations and have an ecologically concious and innovative population.

“This opens up new export and cooperation opportunities for Finnish expertise especially in production in green energy and projects focusing on electric transportation,” Minister Toivakka continues.

The business delegation to Los Angeles and Palo Alto consists of the following enterprises: Business Oulu, Capmunda, Cleantech Invest plc, Eera Oy, Energiakolmio Oy, Fortum Markets Oy, eMobility, Häme University for Applied Sciences HAMK, Liikennevirta Oy, Management Institute of Finland MIF Oy, NaturVention Ltd., Neste Oil, Nokeval Oy, People Group Academy Oy, Solar Fire Concentration Oy, St1 Biofuels Oy, Verte Oy.

From the United States, Minister Toivakka will continue on a trade mission to Mexico from 22 to 26 March, accompanied by enterprises from the marine industry, the ICT sector and the education export sector.

Additional information: Miika Tomi, Press Attaché to the Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, mobile tel. +358 50 574 0507