60 years of collaboration between Finland and Alger

Finland recognized Algeria as soon as it became independent in 1962. Relations between Finland and Algeria have been good since the beginning and currently around 1800 Algerians live in Finland. Algeria is the 10th-largest gas producer globally and is now focusing on the construction of a gas pipeline, which aim will be to export electricity and hydrogen to Europe in the future. The Ambassador sees that the companies in Vaasa have the technology needed to achieve this goal.

The Ambassador had several meetings with representatives from the university and companies in the Vaasa region. During the first day, the Ambassador visited Wärtsilä Sustainable Technology Hub, where he learned about Wärtsilä’s global business and got to see their brand new facilities. After that the University of Vaasa representatives together with Vice-Rector Jyrki Vuorinen, presented their strategy and internationalization goals, ie aiming for 30% of their students to come from outside of Finland. The Ambassador showed his interests in promoting collaboration between universities in Algeria and Vaasa and told that Algerian students may have state funded scholarships to go abroad to study but unfortunately Finland is not one of the target countries yet. The day end with an interesting visit to the Technobothnia laboratories, an innovative platform on campus in Vaasa for performing ie energy technology studies and testing new ideas.

On the second day, The Mayor of Vaasa, Tomas Häyry together with Communication and Brand Manager Kristoffer Jansson (VASEK) welcomed the Ambassador to Vaasa. During the meeting, the Ambassador eagerly tried to grasp the successful receipe Vaasa has with the public sector working in close cooperation with the business world and the universities in order to co-create added value and bringing forward new ideas and extensive projects. The ambassador wishes to connect companies in Vaasa with companies in Algeria. In the Ambassador’s view companies in Vaasa could possibly have a big role on the Algerian markets, where energy is also the main business sector. Algeria’s aim is to step away from fossil energy and focus on renewable energy in the future.

The Ambassador also visited Mirka’s Vaasa office. Business Excellence Manager, Mia Högkvist introduced him to the company’s background as a family-owned company and showed several types of abrasives, which Mirka sells, as well as highlighting the impressive Mirka academy and the sustainability efforts within the Shape Ecosystem project. Area Sales Manager, Tamirat Yigzaw presented the African Market where Mirka has three active distributors in Algeria. Mr Tamirat highlighted some of the challenges the company is facing when doing business in Algeria. The Ambassador stressed that the country prefers foreign companies to partner with local companies and produce the products in the country. He also mentioned that while partnering with their national producers, the foreign companies can still have full ownership of the business and get tax exemptions.

The last visit was to ABB Oy, where Managing Director Pekka Tiitinen presented the company businesses in Finland, and Globally.  Mr. Tiitinen also explained that ABB is established in Algeria in a few locations around capital city Algiers and further in western Algeria. In Algeria ABB employs some tens of people to work closely with the Algerian customers.

During the visit in Vaasa, the Ambassador showed his intention to bridge possible cooperation between Vaasa and Algeria. He also offered his assistance to Finnish companies to do business in Algeria.

The Ambassador sees Vaasa as a very international and positively outgoing. The Ambassador aims to bring a delegation from Algerian energy companies to the next annual Energy Week in 2024.