China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment jointly hosted the 6th China-Finland Committee for Innovative Business Cooperation Meeting in Beijing on Monday. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao attended the closing ceremony and delivered speeches.

More than 120 representatives from the business communities of the two countries participated in the meeting. After the meeting, Orpo and Wang held a roundtable discussion with representatives of the Finnish business community.

Orpo said that Finland-China relations have a long history, with frequent high-level exchanges and sound economic and trade cooperation. China is an important trading partner and export market for Finland, and Finnish companies attach great importance to the vast potential of the Chinese market.

Since its establishment in 2017, the China-Finland Joint Committee for Innovative Business Cooperation has become an important platform for promoting business exchanges and economic and trade cooperation, said Orpo, noting that the two countries share a strong willingness to cooperate in areas such as green and low-carbon development, the circular economy, and industrial digitalization, and he expressed hope that enterprises on both sides would translate the outcomes of exchanges into concrete cooperation projects.

On a further note, Orpo said that Finland supports free trade and fair competition, and looks forward to enhancing mutual trust and reducing trade barriers between Europe and China. Finland welcomes Chinese companies to invest in Finland and will work to create a sound business environment for Chinese enterprises, he said, according to the MOFCOM.

Wang said that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China-Finland economic and trade cooperation has yielded fruitful results, led by tech innovation and "green" cooperation setting an example of open cooperation and mutual benefit.

This year marks the first year of China's 15th Five Year Plan. Wang said that China will continue to pursue high quality development and steadfastly expand high level opening up, welcoming Chinese and Finnish enterprises to strengthen confidence, seize opportunities, and further expand cooperation in trade, investment, innovation and other areas.

Wang expressed hope that the Finnish government would play a positive role in urging the EU to exercise prudence in the use of economic and trade restrictive tools, work in the same direction with China, jointly oppose protectionism, and foster a fair, open, non-discriminatory and predictable policy environment for cooperation between Chinese and Finnish enterprises, as well as between China and the EU.

During the meeting, Chinese and Finnish business representatives held in-depth and lively discussions on cooperation in areas such as innovation, green development, and digitalization, and signed a number of commercial agreements.