Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen will pay an official visit to Vietnam from Nov. 15-17 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung.

The visit is expected to strengthen the traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries, especially in economics, trade and investment.

Vietnam and Finland established diplomatic ties in January 1973. The two countries have seen positive developments in their friendship and multi-faceted cooperation. They have regularly exchanged high-ranking delegations and boosted bilateral meetings, including the Finnish President’s visit to Vietnam in February 2008 and a Finland visit by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung in June 2008.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the Finnish President had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the ASEM-7 Summit in Beijing in October 2008 and State President Nguyen Minh Triet met with the Finnish PM during the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in July this year.

Regarding their cooperation on development, at the Consultative Group (CG) Meeting in December 2008, Finland pledged to provide over 46.6 million USD to Vietnam, the highest level so far and up 47 percent compared to the previous year. As of now, Finland’s total ODA provision for Vietnam has reached nearly 400 million USD.

During the 2009-2012 period, Finland will continue support for Vietnam in such areas as poverty reduction, forestry, clean water and hygiene, science and technology.

The country is considering reallocation of its ODA for Vietnam to new areas such as labour, industry and trade policy, promoting innovation, climate change, environmental protection, energy and green technology.

However, Vietnam-Finland trade relations remain modest compared with other EU members with two-way trade reaching only 240 million USD in 2008, up 40 percent against the previous year. The figure for 2009 is estimated at 200 million USD, due to the impact of the world financial crisis.

Finland’s foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam reached only 60 million USD last year with six projects. The two countries signed an agreement on investment encouragement and protection.

During a Finland visit by Deputy PM and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan in February 2009, the two sides signed a joint agreement on educational cooperation under which Finland will help Vietnam in training PhDs in information technology, health, environment, forestry and aquaculture.

With 18 Vietnamese labourers sent to work in Ostrobothnia in October 2008, Vietnam has become the first country outside Europe allowed to send workers to Finland under the country’s pilot migrant labour cooperation programme.

In the coming time, the two countries will assess the working results of the first batch of Vietnamese workers to consider the possibility of expanding this programme.

Accompanying PM Matti Vanhanen will be representatives of 26 leading Finnish enterprises who will attend a business forum between the two countries scheduled for November 17 in Ho Chi Minh City./.