A felicitous Finn

PASSING THROUGH/ Paula Lehtomaki

Paula Lehtomaki

Finland's Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Paula Lehtomaki says that Indian food is far too spicy.

At a dinner here with Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, she says she had to eat lots of yoghurt. "Now I definitely know I should avoid red sauce," she says ruefully.

An aversion to spicy food apart, Lehtomaki is marked by one fact "" at 32, she is the youngest member of the Finland's Cabinet.

Lehtomaki has been a member of Parliament since 1999 and is also a minister at the prime minister's office. She is one of the 13 ministers (Finland has roughly an equal number of men and women as ministers).

On her maiden trip to India, the minister juggled sightseeing, including a visit to the Taj Mahal over the weekend, with shopping and a heavy business itinerary.

According to Lehtomaki, Goa is the most popular destination for Finnishishish tourists, who are equally fascinated by "Hindu religion and culture", elephants and the traffic.

Lehtomaki, however, didn't fly down to Goa "" she began her India trip with a stopover at India's information technology (IT) capital, Bangalore.

There she met Chief Minister Dharam Singh and addressed a Finland-India seminar organised in co-operation with the Bangalore Chamber of Industry & Commerce.

"My own perception of India is divided as there are two facets "" one rural and the other urban. In Bangalore, I visited several top Indian IT companies - including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, both of which now also have a base in Finland - along with Elcoteq Electronics (India) P Ltd., a wholly-owned Finnish subsidiary which is based here.

But I have not visited any rural area so I cannot comment on that too much," says Lehtomaki.

The minister was accompanied by representatives of 22 companies and private banks (Nordea and Sampo Bank), financing agencies like Finfund and Finpro, Ahlstrom which deals in specialty papers, mineral company Metso, Raisio Life Sciences, energy major Wartsila and telecom giant Nokia.

With just five Indian companies based in Finland, including Wipro, Xansa Tech, TCS and Bluestar Infotech, marketing Finland as a good investment destination was on top of the minister's agenda.

Other items on her agenda included the telecom industry and environment technology.

"I met IT and Telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and discussed e-governance, the spectrum issue and the issue of last mile connectivity," she says, adding that in Finland there is 90 per cent IT penetration but the government is now focusing on providing faster internet connectivity.

Finland is also keen to share its expertise in environment technology with India. She says that with countries like China and India having the advantage of cheap labour costs, the Finnish government is trying invest heavily in research and development to develop its own advantages.

"Today our government spends 3.4 per cent on R&D, besides education," she discloses.

Building closer trade ties with India too was one of the objectives of her visit. Bilateral trade is extremely low. In 2003, Finland's exports to India were valued at ¤203.4 million (Rs 1,162.2 crore) while imports from India were valued at a mere ¤93 million (Rs 531.4 crore).

Finland's major exports to India include machinery and transport equipment and manufactured goods.

The minister met Kamal Nath and called on Finance Minister P Chidambaram. "India still has relatively high levels of tariff and duties. There are also concerns about the use of anti-dumping measures which are being taken up by the European Union with India," she says.

Lehtomaki's visit to India also has as a backdrop the India-EU summit next year which is slated to be held in Helsinki. "We are planning to organise an India-EU business summit along with the main summit. Already more than 70 Finnish companies are established in India and I am accompanied by several companies that are keen to do trade with India," she says.

Lehtomaki says that perceptions about India are rapidly changing in Finland. "There are now a large number of Indian companies in Finland and India is well regarded for its high level of expertise in information technology," she notes, adding that outsourcing isn't a hot topic in Finland.

"We are not that badly affected as the United Kingdom because, unlike the English speaking UK, the majority of the population speaks Finnish. So we are not in the race to outsource call centre operations," she says.

In Finland, wooden products are popular, she says, pointing to a wooden photo frame and wooden candle stands she picked up during a brief shopping spree.

"I really wanted to buy a wooden elephant but it is too heavy for me to carry back home," she chuckles, adding that while many members of her delegation went golfing, she visited old Delhi.

Lehtomaki does not know when she will visit India again, but she is emphatic she will "" she has to pick up a wooden elephant, after all.