Surely 2020 is a year we would want to leave behind us as soon as possible. At the end of the year it is time to turn our focus to the year ahead. According to the Business Confidence Survey by FBCs in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong as well as FinnCham HK released beginning of this month business prospects for 2021 in China look modestly optimistic for Finnish companies. Almost 60% of respondents are expecting a growth from China business profits. This is resonated with almost 30% of respondents forecasting an increase in hiring more local employees. Looking at globally, similar optimism is shown in the December edition of Economic Conditions Snapshot McKinsey Global Survey on Executives (Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2020: McKinsey Global Survey results). While Covid-19 is still seen as the number one risk for business in 2021, for the first time this year the respondents are more likely to report improvements than declines in economic conditions. Over 60% see their respective countries’ economies to be better six months from now, while 68% are expecting economic growth compared to 24% forecasting decline during the same time period. When it comes to their own companies, global executives are also increasingly optimistic. This can be seen in the prediction of increase in workforce, 34% of respondents are planning an increase in their company’s workforce, a higher share than even in March 2020 (23%) when the seriousness of the pandemic was unclear. It might be basic human nature or just the fact of how bad the year 2020 was for of us that I personally tend to share the optimism in these surveys for 2021.  

Regardless of the pandemic, December was an extremely busy month for us at FBCB, as I would hope it was to majority of our member companies. I personally was truly honored to participate the official opening of Metso:Outotec new office in Shanghai on the 30th of December. While it is a new company, both of the halves, Metso and Outotec, have decades of history in the mining industry. In fact, the first project to China by the company was already in 1930 when it delivered its first ball mill to China. This new merger is a prime example of how prominent Finnish companies within the same value chain come together to provide better solutions for their customers. The office opened in Shanghai serves as a workplace for some 100 Metso:Outotec employees and with the eight customer and partner contracts signed during the opening, the company will surely have a prosperous future in China!   

In other activities this month, we started with a health technology Team Finland China delegation visit to Haikou. In many ways Hainan is a less known territory Finnish businesses but with recent developments in the island province, I am sure it will become more and more familiar. Another Team Finland China took place to Jilin Province where some 20 Finnish companies in Wintersports and Energy explored further collaboration with local companies. One of my personal favorites activities this month was the field trip to BDA (Beijing Development Area, YiZhuang). Accompanied by Ambassador Syrjälä we had a good meeting with the local BDA government, thanks to our member Discovery Partners International Ltd. Afterwards we visited another member company Detection Technology where Pekka Patja, Director of the company’s China operations, also FBCB Board member, introduced the companies operations and adoption to Lean Manufacturing processes. Also, our most prestigious forum, Women in Business, convened just before Christmas. You can find more information of these activities later in this newsletter.

While the year is changing, in China it is only a tiny break before the Chinese New Year. January is still ful speed and one of the highlights is our longest standing tradition of Epiphany Brunch on 10th of January. In addition, the Women in Business -forum will convene one more time before Chinese New Year. And I am extremely excited to announce the speaker – Former Chinese Ambassador to Finland, H. E. Ma Keqing. For further information, see later in this newsletter (Note: Naturally FBCB follows the instructions and regulations set by Beijing Municipal Government due to Covid-19 pandemic, so details shown below might change).

In this edition of FBCB newsletter we are honored include greetings from H. E. Ambassador Jarno Syrjälä.

And last but definitely not least, our guest writer article comes from our Premium Member Nokia. Ms. Maggie Ma and Mr Tony Quan tell us how Nokia Shanghai Bell has brought 5G solutions to the pandemic response and healthcare.

Dear members, it has been an extremely excruciating year for many of us. Regardless, we will move on and I truly hope 2021 will be a whole lot better for all of us! With these words I want to wish you all a better and healthy New Year 2021!   

Sincerely Yours. on behalf of FBCB

Juha Tuominen

Chairman

FBCB 

We all know that 2020 was a unique and challenging year, forcing most people to adapt to new realities in their private lives. It has also been a difficult year for businesses in a variety of industries. I would like to thank the members of the Finnish Business Council in Beijing for the good cooperation we enjoyed in 2020 despite the difficult circumstances. The Council is one of the closest partners of the Embassy when it comes to promoting Finnish business interests in China. Together with the other members of the Team Finland China network, we are doing our utmost to ensure that Finnish companies are given the best possible circumstances for making the most of the opportunities in the Chinese markets also in 2021.

Despite the situation, we have not stood idle over the past twelve months, or so. Our focus at the Embassy has been on taking care of the Finnish citizens, and their needs, but also on interacting with Finnish companies involved with China. We have shared information about the situation through reporting and through webinars, for example. I want to thank our partners in all these efforts.

Team Finland cooperation has been an integral part of our work during this period as well. During the more quiet months of the first half of 2020, we had a good opportunity to fine-tune our internal processes and move to the next level in our cooperation by better planning, better information sharing and more active collaboration.

Because of the well thought out preparatory work, we were ready to move to the field during the latter part of the year - as soon as the situation and the travel restrictions permitted. During these months, we were able to participate in expos and other events, do provincial visits, and also work more directly with companies. Sometimes these activities had a record level of participation by Finnish companies. More often than not we were the first foreign delegation to be welcomed by the local authorities since the pandemic started. This work has now laid the foundation for our activities in 2021, and beyond. Together we have to identify what kind of follow up measures we need to take and what kind of concepts we should use in order to make the most of the situation.

I want to be optimistic about the future. Although it may be difficult to envision at this time, one day the pandemic will be behind us. When it comes to economy, recovery is already well underway in China. In fact, economic recovery might not be a proper term to describe China’s economic development, as in China’s case the pandemic caused something more like a stagnation than a recession. China pulled further ahead of other major economies during the year, reinforcing expectations of healthy growth in 2021. However, the challenges that we still face globally, are immense.

In 2020, we also marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Finland and the People’s Republic of China. For decades, trade has constituted a key driver of our bilateral relationship. We remember that in 1953, Finland became the first Western country to sign an intergovernmental trade agreement with China. As I have said many times lately, despite the COVID-19 crisis, some basic things have not changed, and will not change. One of them is that Finland will remain a good and trustworthy partner for China also in years to come.

Jarno Syrjälä

Ambassador of Finland to China

Dear friends at the Finnish business community,

Thanks to the Finnish Business Council Beijing for the kind invitation as guest writers for December newsletter.

2020 is an extraordinary and difficult year, as we saw the emergence of a global pandemic and subsequent race for a vaccine, economic uncertainty, continued geopolitical instability. As the pandemic triggered travel restrictions, lockdowns and social distancing requirements, a number of important challenges emerged for societies and businesses.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in China, Nokia Shanghai Bell along with our customers and partners, have been standing on the front lines of pandemic control.

On January 25th, we assisted China Telecom-Wuhan to open the first 5G base station of Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, which was one of the key epidemic hospitals. It only took us less than two days from receiving the support request, to delivery, testing, activating and optimizing. This is a record speed of industry to support the COVID fight.  

Activation of 5G base station became a milestone for the epidemic hospital, enabling live broadcasting and monitoring of hospital construction. During January 21- 31st, we had a total of around 200 on-site support personnel, over 10 vehicles, 18 sets of communication equipment and testing tools dedicated for the epidemic area.

In the meantime, we have R&D teams and second-line support team as back-office remote support, mobilizing all the resources to give full support to fulfil Hubei Province's network assurance needs.

   

The crisis management team tracked the on-site personnel's itinerary and ensured our teams were well protected with proper sanitary supplies and measures.

In addition, in February Nokia Shanghai Bell Emergency Relief Fund also donated a total of 8 negative pressure ambulances and other medical supplies under the guidance of National Health Commission and other government agencies to support epidemic control for hospitals in Hubei, to prevent cross-infection of healthcare workers, and to prevent the further spread of the virus.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Nokia has provided many new digital technologies and solutions to help fight with the pandemic. On January 27th, Nokia partnered with China Mobile-Sichuan to launch a new big data monitoring and analysis platform for pandemic prevention.

This system accurately identified infected persons including travel history, and also targeting pandemic hot spots to help healthcare workers to reduce the area for targeted isolation and inspection to reduce the impact of the pandemic on society.

In addition, Nokia launched high quality infrared body temperature detection solution in Shanghai, Hunan, Sichuan Provinces to cover large areas, reducing the burdens for pandemic monitoring on healthcare workers.

As we enter the post COVID-19 pandemic period, digital solutions have enabled governments to better respond to emergencies, and has also become the strongest engine to support China’s economic recovery. In 5G era, the transformation of traditional industries will vastly improve efficiency, safety and increase productivity.

In China, digital economy has already become the strongest engine driving economic growth. China’s digital economy scale have reached RMB 31 Trillion in 2019, and will account for 55% of China’s GDP by 2035.

At Nokia, we are working with 1000+ partners in vertical industries such as Communications Service Providers, webscales, transportation, energy, manufacturing, finance, and smart cities. 

Digital transformation is being embraced in China, where President Xi Jinping put 5G networks and data centres at the top of the country’s recovery plans, which are based on building digital infrastructure to cushion the impact of the outbreak and unlock the recovery.

We worked with China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) to demonstrate how 5G-connected ambulances can enable remote support and diagnosis before emergency patients arrive at hospital. We used the Nokia 5G FIRST solution, to replicate communications between ambulance and hospital staff as an emergency patient is being transported, making use of 5G slicing technology to transfer images, such as patient X-rays and video, to the hospital in real-time.

In July of this year, we announced an exciting new deal with China Unicom to provide core 5G services that will help unlock transformative technologies and economic progress at a time when they are most needed.

Nokia’s deal with China Unicom will lay the groundwork for critical healthcare communications supported by 5G – driving more efficient and reliable communication between hospitals and staff and improved results for patients.

Now more than ever, healthcare infrastructures around the world need fast and secure technologies to support patients, whether they are in urban or remote areas, while using remote diagnosis and remote monitoring.

Like Nokia Shanghai Bell, more and more Finnish companies are looking to China for learnings and opportunities.

5G and digital transformation has been kicked off and positioned as a core lever for economic recovery, enabling smart cities to connect their people and infrastructures in a deeper, more reliable and more efficient way.

 

I would like to sincerely thank Finnish Business Council, Business Finland and everyone in the Team Finland community for your unwavering support for Finnish businesses in China, for providing us a valuable and rich environment of friendly Finland – China relations that is the bedrock for building business cooperation for Finnish companies in the China market.

This year alone, even under challenges in travel restrictions due to COVID-19, Finnish Ambassador to China, Business Finland and the Finnish Business Council have worked to promote China-Finland cooperation, and have led almost weekly business delegations to various Provinces throughout China, to continue building friendship and increase economic cooperation between the two countries.

In Henan Province for example, leveraging the successful “Henan Meets Finland” program initiated by Nokia late 2019, Finnish companies built comprehensive cooperation with Henan partners in 2020 in areas including logistics, energy, real estate, healthcare and telecom sectors, despite the COVID impact. 

Starting in July this year when the Finnish Ambassador led a Finnish delegation in a virtual matchmaking event with then Henan Executive Vice Governor Huang Qiang, Finnish Ambassador has travelled to Henan Province countless times leading the effort to open opportunities for Finnish companies.

As results of these great joint efforts, we are so proud and happy to witness the remarkable progress such as Helsinki – ZhengZhou direct commercial flight, China Railway Express between Helsinki and Zhengzhou and most recently Helsinki – ZhengZhou direct cargo flight were opened in operations. 

This year marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Finland. We are proud that Finland continues to be one of China’s closest diplomatic and economic partners in Europe.

We in the Finnish business community in China are very lucky to have such strong support from Finland, which is much needed especially during this special year full of uncertainties. 

 

At Nokia, we commit to do our part to build digital innovations as a successful example of win-win partnership between Finland and China.

Finally, I wish everyone in the Finnish Business Community a very happy holiday season, and a happy new year!

新年快乐！Onnellista Uutta Vuotta！

Finnish Business Council Beijing is part of Team Finland in China, and an outstanding platform for all Finnish businesses in China. For those companies which need more visibility, we have launched a Premium Membership. It's an upgrade from normal membership, as you can see from the table below.

For those companies in Finland, who are planning to expand their businesses to China, or are in the early stage and don't have an office in China yet, we have a distant membership. It's called Proxy Membership. A very cost-effective way to make your company known to a large audience, and get essential contacts for your future.

See all membership options HERE