Skills, opportunities aplenty in Bangalore for Finns

The economic reforms taken up by India seem to have impressed Finland, helping widen the trade ties between the countries. The 70-odd Finnish companies that have their presence in India and the 100-odd companies that trade with India are testimony to this.

"Further steps in the Indian economic reform will enable our two countries to fully utilise the potential for their mutual trade and economic co-operation on a level playing field," said Paula Lehtomaki, minister for foreign trade and development of Finland.

"These reforms have brought in predictability of the business environment, transparency and good governance," added Lehtomaki. The statement, from a minister from Finland, a country ranked on top by Transparency International, is significant as "red tape is much shorter" now, said a delegate, who was part of the Finnish business delegation headed by Lehtomaki.

Many of the members of the Finnish delegation felt that the skills and opportunities which booming Bangalore and Karnataka offer them by way of production, outsourcing, business alliances and purchase of productivity tools for knowledge management was immense.

"Bangalore, as a hi-tech city, has a lot of opportunities for the hi-tech Finnish companies," said Glen Lindholm, ambassador of Finland to India.

Seppo Keranen, head of Finpro India, who was instrumental in bringing the delegation, said heavy engineering industry too holds great promise.

The delegation, made up of representatives from electronics, engineering, energy, finance, logistics for freight and textiles, metals and technology, mining and technology showcased the areas where Indian businesses could develop ties with Finnish companies. In 2004, Indian imports from Finland stood at ¤ 200 million ($260m) and exports to Finland was ¤95 million ($123.5m).

The Finns are involved in building the Golden Quadrilateral. About 40 per cent of the stones crushed for it is being done by Finnish company Metso Minerals.

The firm believes that it can build on its relationship with India by working with Indian firms like Tata Steel, Hindalco among others. It believes it can help produce iron, aluminium and metals of better quality and more economically, while at the same time helping cutting down on wastage to very great extent.