Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen at the business meeting in Jakarta

(check against delivery)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Life is full of surprises. Instead of a full-blown business forum, we are going to have a business briefing seminar today here in Jakarta. And all because of a small volcano in Iceland which has wreaked havoc with flying in Europe and has led to the fact that the number of Finnish business representatives here today is regrettably low. However, I know that this reason for the change in plans is well understood here; Indonesia has experience of the same phenomenon, perhaps more than any other country in the world.

We now have the possibility for a high-level presentation to Indonesian economy and the possibilities for trade and economic cooperation, by the best experts in the field. We can all look forward to an exchange of ideas concerning the new prospects of trade and economic relations between Finland and Indonesia.

Let me begin by just a few words, before giving the floor to the experts.

For the past few years, Indonesia has sustained the momentum of high growth. Even now, in the middle of the global crisis, the Indonesian economy has been one of the few that could show a steady growth rate.

Indonesia has greatly improved its business climate during the last years. Finland welcomes Indonesian efforts in bringing forward trade, foreign investment and financial sector reforms.

Finland, on the other hand, is a world leader in developing information applications for industry. In addition to industrial goods and machinery, we export project management know-how related to industrial processes on various fields. Therefore, I am looking for partnerships to take advantage of these opportunities, based on Indonesian experience in a fast growing Asian market, on one hand, and the Finnish know-how, on the other.

The commercial cooperation between Finland and Indonesia presents noteworthy potential, not only in terms of bilateral trade and services - imports and exports but also in terms of strengthening investment activities.

Environmental technology represents a new potential cooperation sector. We have created the so-called Cleantech Finland brand to push environmentally friendly innovations and technologies forward. Co-operation in this sector between Finland and Indonesia exists already but there is room to expand.

I hope that this seminar will contribute in creating a basis for commercial partnership-building between authorities and organisations and that the network of contacts will expand.

As a final point, I would like to emphasise that statistical figures on import and export between our countries reflect only one side of the total picture. Today, trade activities are truly global and only a small fraction of the total economic activities between our two countries are reflected in statistical figures.

Thank you very much