PremiumMika Lintilä, who is on a week-long visit to India said Finnish companies have expertise in areas like quantum computing, 5G technology, renewable energy and low emission mobility, the areas that could benefit from greater bilateral cooperation
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NEW DELHI : Finland is keen to step up cooperation with India in areas like waste-to-energy, low carbon mobility and communication, said Finland’s visiting minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä, who on Monday made a joint announcement with science and technology minister Jitendra Singh on cooperation in quantum computing.
Lintilä said in an interview that India and Finland are exploring more tie ups and that the two sides would be announcing partnerships in the areas of energy too. Lintilä, who is on a week-long visit to India said Finnish companies have expertise in areas like quantum computing, 5G technology, renewable energy and low emission mobility, the areas that could benefit from greater bilateral cooperation.
India’s collaboration with Finland in the technology segment has done well for companies like Nokia and digital technology would naturally be an area of future collaboration between the two countries, he said.
Under the deal announced by both the sides on Monday, an Indo-Finnish virtual network centre on quantum computing would be set up, said an official statement from the ministry of science and technology. A deal to this effect was signed by officials from both the sides in the presence of Singh and Lintilä.
Lintilä said that he would be meeting commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri. “We try to open doors for companies for cooperation. In energy sector we have solutions which could be very interesting for India, for example in ‘waste-to-energy’ and circular economy," said Lintilä.
The minister said that connectivity is a key area in bilateral cooperation. “The MoU signed today looks at quantum technology opportunity. There are specific areas where Finland is really advanced. We have strong research (capability) and companies that have technology," said the minister.
The statement from the science and technology ministry said quoting Jitendra Singh that bilateral collaboration between the two countries was an attempt to stimulate innovative research and development projects that address specific needs or challenges, demonstrate high industrial relevance and commercial potential and aim to deliver benefit to both the nations.
Singh said that the Department of Science & Technology has started several mission mode programs covering electric vehicles, quantum technologies, future manufacturing and green hydrogen fuel and have sought collaboration with Finland in solving issues of societal challenges.
“We are an export country. More than 40% of our GDP come from exports. We strongly support open trade. We (India and Finland) have good trade relations and we have to continue that and companies have a big role in that," said Lintilä.
On the proposed Free Trade Agreement between India and the EU, the minister said that a trade agreement tailored for today’s needs--not a conventional one, but one that facilitates a broad range of economic cooperation-- would be in the interest India, Finland and the EU.
An email sent to the ministries of power and petroleum and natural gas on Monday evening remained unanswered at the time of publishing.