Finland offers enormous opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs in small and medium sector either to set up new units, form joint ventures or takeover the existing firms, as it is facing generation shift, said Jukka Mansikka, Executive Partner of Tampere Business Region on Tuesday.
Addressing an ?Info session ? more business from Finland' organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said that 50,000 SMEs were on the block as most of the entrepreneurs were nearing the retirement age. These units might be sold or closed down and hence their existing products, market share and workforce offered tremendous opportunity.
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?The trade between India and Finland is evolving. Currently, Indian IT firms are present in Finland. The investment by Indian firms in Finland is a mere two per cent. We are conducting road shows in five cities to invite Indian firms to invest in our region. We are not restricting our invitation to any particular sector. We hope that the investment by Indian firms would increase in the coming months with the opening up of more number of firms. Next time, we will come with a bigger delegation and would cover seven cities including Chennai,? he said.
Asked whether Finnish firms would like to toe the line of Nokia in setting up units in India, he said that Indian consultants were making three to four trips to Finland in a year explaining the investment potential.
?Finland is an IT superpower. About 98 per cent of household have computers, internet penetration is 83.5 per cent and mobile penetration is 128 per cent. Tampere region offers an excellent alliance of business, science and technology. The region has strong and focused business activities and research expertise in seven different fields such as intelligent machines, biotechnology, nanotechnology, health technology, digital business and energy technology.
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K. Saraswathi, MCCI Secretary General (designate) said that Tampere was Finland's third biggest city and it was a cradle for many industries.