Prime Minister Juha Sipilä to visit India

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä will head a Team Finland visit to India on 12‒14 February 2016. The aim of the official visit is to strengthen relations between Finland and India and promote trade and economic cooperation.

During his visit, Prime Minister Sipilä will meet the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. The meeting will focus on relations between Finland and India as well as key international and regional issues.  

The aim of the visit is to promote Finnish business opportunities in India. A business delegation, representing 17 Finnish companies and organisations, will accompany Prime Minister Sipilä on the visit. The business delegation includes representatives for energy and environmental technology, information technology, health care and welfare services and education. The delegation is coordinated by Finpro.

The destination of the visit is Mumbai, where Prime Minister Sipilä and the business delegation will attend the launch event of Make in India Week. Prime Minister Sipilä is one of the opening's guest speakers. During the visit, Prime Minister will also meet other ministers of the Indian Government and Indian business leaders and major investors.

Make in India Week showcases the potential of design, innovation and sustainability in India. Make in India, launched by Prime Minister Modi, is one of the key programmes of the Indian Government, and it includes several sector-specific initiatives such as Digital India, Start-Up India, Clean India, 100 Smart Cities and Skill India. The aim of the programme is to transform India into the next global design and manufacturing hub. This will be achieved by promoting the use of clean, sustainable and energy-efficient technologies and by supporting the country's efforts to achieve better self-sufficiency ratio.

Trade between Finland and India began to grow vigorously in the beginning of the 21st century. The peak was reached in 2011 with trade worth EUR 1.3 billion. Thereafter, trade took a downward turn, the most significant factor being the decline in the export of machinery and electronic products. India is a huge market. As an emerging and prospering country with an increasingly large middle class population, India offers Finnish companies a host of business opportunities. In the future, India will invest considerably in, for example, infrastructure construction, environmental technology, energy production, information and communications technology, forest industry, health care, education, and food technology and food safety.

Companies and other delegation participants: BaseN, Chempolis, Comptel, Crown CRO, European Water Lake and River system association, Evac, Fortum, Grexel Systems, Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Lindström Group, Nestor Cables, Nocart, Nokia, Sharper Shape, University of Turku, Vaisala and Wärtsilä.

Inquiries: Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen, Special Adviser (International Affairs), tel. +358 40 748 3867, Mari-Kaisa Brander, Head of Communications (Team Finland), tel. +358 40 131 3388, Prime Minister's Office and Sanna Halinen, Desk Officer (India), tel. +358 295 350 562, Ministry for Foreign Affairs.