Country Profile : Finland Publication date: December 6 Approval Date: December 3
Message from the Ambassador of Finland
Finland and Indonesia are very different countries and far away from each other, but they also have a few things in common.
Both countries have a lot of islands, Indonesia mainly large and Finland small. And large parts of both countries are covered by forests. Both countries also have a lady President.
The relations between our two countries are longstanding. Diplomatic relations were established in 1954 and since 1974 there has been a resident Finnish Ambassador in Jakarta. Soon after that Indonesia established her Embassy in Helsinki. As a protocol officer at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, I learned to know from the very beginning the first Indonesian diplomats in Helsinki and at the same time I was able to learn about this beautiful country, about its smiling and friendly people and about the huge variety of its culture.
The economic relations between Finland and Indonesia were especially strong in the 1990s when Indonesia was building and modernizing her forest industry and Finnish companies were main suppliers of machinery to the pulp and paper mills. We have already for several years had a fruitful cooperation in the forestry field and in the framework of the agreement on economic and technological cooperation we have a common working group concentrating on forestry. We also have had meetings at the ministerial level. One of our leading forestry companies has made a sizable plantation investment in West-Kalimantan. These days we concentrate more and more on the sustainable development also in the forestry sector shifting the emphasis towards environmental protection and conservation as well as reforestation programs.
When the share of the forest machinery sector in our trade has declined, the telecommunications sector has taken over. I assume that most of the people of Indonesia know Nokia but they do not necessarily know that the company is originally from Finland and has its headquarters in Finland. As a homeland of Nokia it may be only natural that the World Economic Forum has ranked Finland number one in its Global Information Technology Report 2002-2003. Finland was placed in the lead on the grounds that the Finnish public, the business community and public authorities have the highest state of readiness for the use and application of information and communication technology which are among the most powerful prerequisites for economic growth, particularly at a time of worldwide economic slowdown.
The Finnish exports to Indonesia in general during the past few years have not developed in a satisfactory way. After several years of downward development the latest figures from this year show, however, a slight increase in our exports. I am sure that there is a lot of exploitable potential that should be taken into use but we have to discover Indonesia again. At the same time Indonesia has done better and the Indonesian exports to Finland have shown a continuous and steady growth. The trade balance between our two countries is now clearly in favor of Indonesia.
As a member of the European Union and as a participant in the international donor community Finland has continued to support Indonesia and we intend to do so also in the future. Our main targets have been to promote good governance and support the building of civil society. We also want to see a sustainable development in this country. Building democracy and introducing reforms are not an easy tasks.
We in Finland are great admirers of Indonesian culture and during the past few years there have been several occasions when we have been able to enjoy the performances of Indonesian artists. At the same time Finland has also brought artists to Indonesia. Right now we have in Jakarta an exhibition on poster art in Finland and we hope to be able to arrange more cultural events here. The best way to overcome suspicions and wrong ideas about other cultures and religions is to learn more about them.
I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the many friends of Finland who have made an invaluable contribution to our bilateral relations and wish the Finnish community in Indonesia as well as all readers of The Jakarta Post a happy and peaceful holiday season.
Markku Niinioja Ambassador of Finland