The Ambassador of Thailand impressed by Vaasa and Finland

The Ambassador of Thailand to Finland, H.E. Ms Chavanart Thangsumphant started her visit by attending EnergyWeek with Counsellor Mr. Kosin Phonmang. Later they met with the Mayor of Vaasa, Mr. Tomas Häyry. Häyry opened up the conversation by highlighting the EnergyVaasa cluster and the future of Vaasa as the most international city in Finland with an expanding energy industry.

This was Ms. Thangsumphant second visit to Vaasa, and she conveyed her feeling that Vaasa seems like the most international city in terms of its business life as well as being industrial production hub especially in energy technology sector. In her opinion Vaasa is a very promising city for developing and generating happiness for everyone due to the low unemployment rate and the city’s effort to become more international by, for example focusing on welcoming an increasing number of international students. The ambassador suggested marketing the educational possibilities in Vaasa to Thailand to attract Thai students to study and live here. It is her wish for educational institutions in Vaasa to partner up with Thai universities since Finland is known for having excellent education.

The Ambassador talked passionately about living in Finland. The Ambassador’s residence is close to nature, so she likes walking in the forest. During winter she especially enjoys snowy scenes where the sun is reflected off ice covered trees and branches as shown in the pictures she took.

Thailand continues to be one of the most popular holiday destinations for Finnish tourists. It is estimated 40,000 Finns visit Thailand every year (38,561 persons in the year of 2022). According to Counsellor Phonmang approximately 13,000 Thai citizens live in Finland. The number of Thai workers in Finland is also growing, especially seasonal workers, who work with berry picking.

Ms. Thangsumphant highlighted that Thailand aims to bid to be the host of Specialized Expo 2028 in Phuket, which is in line with Thailand’s BCG economy model promoting sustainable growth. Most importantly, Thailand also aims to be an electric vehicle production hub in Asia and expects that 30 percent (~725,000/year) of total car production to be electric vehicles by 2030. To strengthen the possible cooperation between Vaasa and Thailand, the Ambassador invited the mayor to attend the upcoming Startup and Innovation Thailand Expo (SITE), which will be held on 22-24 of June 2023 in Thailand.

The Ambassador was really pleased with her visit to Vaasa, as areas of future collaboration such as energy and education were discussed. The Ambassador’s program continued by visiting Stormossen and Westenergy to learn about processing waste into biogas and district heating. The following day they met up with around 80 inhabitants from Thailand residing in Vaasa.