Prime Minister Katainen met Latin American Presidents in Chile
Prime Minister Katainen met Latin American leaders in the meeting between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC Summit) which was held in Santiago, Chile, and during his bilateral visit to Chile. Katainen had bilateral talks with the Presidents of Chile, Colombia and Uruguay.
"The aim of the visit and these discussions is to strengthen Finland's presence and image in Latin America and seek for new partnership opportunities in the countries with stable economic growth. These countries are increasingly important trading partners for Finland and the whole EU," said Katainen in Santiago.
Chile is Finland's second largest trading partner in Latin America and it has used Finland as a reference country in the development of its innovation, education, taxation and border control issues.
"Our broad-based contacts provide excellent means for productive cooperation with Chile across a wide front of areas in the future, too. In our meeting, President Piñera said that the Chileans are particularly interested in the Finnish mining expertise and technologies related to the production and use of renewable energy. Over the next ten years, Chile is planning to make significant investments in its mining sector and one the main challenges in this process will be finding environmentally friendly solutions," said Prime Minister Katainen.
In 2013, Finland will place special emphasis on measures to deepen its cooperation with Colombia.
"We will open a new diplomatic mission in Bogota and hope that the Colombians will do the same in Helsinki. Over the recent years, Colombia has made considerable progress in promoting its society and economy. President Juan Manuel Santos said that he was very keen on finding out whether the Finnish education model could be used to support Colombians in their efforts to continue the important work for social progress," said Prime Minister Katainen.
Prime Minister Katainen is accompanied in Chile by a Team Finland business delegation consisting of 23 Finnish companies. Team Finland is a network for promoting Finland and its interests abroad: Finland's external economic relations, the internationalisation of Finnish businesses, the country’s brand, and inward investments. The delegation visiting Chile represents the Finnish mining, energy, wellbeing, telecommunications and forest sectors and, together with Prime Minister Katainen, it has had various meetings with Chilean ministers and business leaders.
"I have very high expectations as regards Team Finland cooperation in Latin America. A good example of this is the agreement on renewable energy technology cooperation signed between Finland and Chile in Santiago. The agreement will provide excellent opportunities for innovative Finnish companies specialising in bioenergy and wave energy to gain a strong foothold in Chile and in Latin America as a whole.”
Inquiries: Inquiries: Kari Mokko, Director of Government Communications, tel. +358 40 751 3281