President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has met today with Ville Skinnari, Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade of Finland, who is also the Co-Chairperson of the Kazakhstan-Finland Intergovernmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation, El.kz cites Akorda.
Welcoming the guest, the President noted the importance of Finnish delegation’s visit to Kazakhstan as an additional impulse to strengthening the bilateral ties and expanding the cooperation.
In 30 years of development of the two countries’ relations, Finland has become Kazakhstan’s second largest investor among the Northern European countries. Kazakhstan accounts for 90 percent of Finland’s trade with Central Asian states. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted the importance of the two states’ partnership in trade-economic, transport-logistics, and education sectors.
He expressed readiness to provide a comprehensive support to Finnish entrepreneurs to stimulate them to invest in Kazakhstan.
In his turn, Ville Skinnari thanked the Kazakh Leader for a warm welcome having noted a huge potential for the expansion of cooperation between the two countries.
According to him, the Finnish delegation includes the representatives of 15 large companies such as Nurminen Logistics Plc, Nokia, EastCham Finland, Business Finland, Lamor, Wärtsilä Finland, PayIQ, EPSE and others. The upcoming meetings are expected to focus on strengthening the trade-economic ties.
Besides, Finnish side plans to open a visa hub at the Embassy of Finland in Astana which will serve the nationals of the Central Asian countries. The sides exchanged also views on the relevant issues of the international and regional agendas. Tokayev conveyed his best wishes to the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö and invited him to pay a visit to Kazakhstan.