Minister of Commerce and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi stressed here yesterday (Thursday) evening the need to strengthen the economic partnership and expand and diversify bilateral trade between the two countries, estimated at 645 million dollars annually, and to benefit from Finland's leadership in the areas of research and development, education and training, start-ups, innovation and others. Heading a high-level Saudi delegation participating in the forum organized by "Business Finland" in cooperation with the Federation of Saudi Chambers, Dr. Al-Qasabi explained that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's economy - since the launch of the "Kingdom Vision 2030" by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Prime Minister in 2016 - witnesses a transformation that led to the opening of many new sectors and promising opportunities for the business sector. He added that the Kingdom works to transform into a global trade and logistics hub, taking advantage of its geographical location and its capabilities that are currently being developed in light of the national strategy for transport and logistics services. Dr. Al-Qasabi also pointed out that there are many promising opportunities available in many fields, including: renewable energy generation, hydrogen use in industrial applications and transportation, as well as cooperation opportunities to develop and employ carbon capture technologies. During the forum, which was attended by about 120 officials from the public and private sectors in the two countries, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Federation of Saudi Chambers and Business Finland. The agreement was signed by Majed Al-Hokair, Chairman of the Saudi-Finnish Business Council, and Nina Kopola, CEO of Business Finland, in addition to signing a number of memoranda of understanding between a number of Saudi-Finnish companies. The forum program included a presentation entitled "Finland Determines the Future", in which Director of International Business Innovation, Karita Tesari da Costa, addressed the most prominent trends and practices adopted in specialized educational centers, innovation centers and business incubators in Finland. On the Saudi side, the Deputy Minister of Commerce and CEO of the National Competitiveness Center, Dr. Iman bint Habbas Al-Mutairi, gave a presentation on the most prominent legislative and procedural reforms implemented with the aim of enhancing the Kingdom's competitiveness and promising opportunities for investors, in addition to clarifying the support provided by the relevant authorities in the business sector to overcome the obstacles facing business owners in light of a business environment that promotes economic growth. For his part, the General Supervisor of the National Program for the Carbon Circular Economy at the Ministry of Energy, Dr. Zaid Al-Gharib, spoke about the Saudi Green Initiative, highlighting that the Kingdom advanced 10 places globally in the Green Future Index for 2022, which is the culmination of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's green initiatives. It is worth mentioning that the Saudi-Finnish Forum discussed a number of areas of cooperation, most notably, transportation and logistics, education, fish farming and food industries, biotechnology and health, information technology, artificial and digital intelligence, energy and environmentally sustainable solutions, and electronic games industries.
