Finland and India sign agreement on science and technology co-operation

Today, 25 March 2008, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology signed an agreement on science and technology co-operation between the nations. The agreement was signed by Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Economic Affairs, and Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science and Technology.

The aim of the agreement is to reinforce the mobility of companies, communities and researchers. The agreement confirms the contracting parties’ attempt to develop and promote co-operation in the fields of science and technology. Following the treaty signed today with India, Finland now has bilateral science and technology co-operation agreements with all of the world’s key drivers of technology such as the USA, Korea, Japan and China.

“The agreement with India is very important for us, since the Indian level of basic research is high, particularly in biotechnology and information technology. The co-operation agreement facilitates Indian organisations' allocation of resources to co-operation with Finland”, stresses Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Economic Affairs.

Currently, Finland is extending its international network of innovation centres, and is investigating the operating conditions of an innovation centre to be potentially established in India. The Nordic countries together, as well as the EU, are also planning the foundation of technology centres in India.

Promising areas of co-operation between the two nations include the software industry, applications of biotechnology, and the environmental and energy industry, which display the best matches between the Finnish and Indian expertise and their markets’ needs.

At the enterprise level, the interaction between Finland and India is clearly becoming more lively. Indian companies have gained ownership of several Finnish technology companies, and Finnish companies’ research and development activities in India are increasing.

The agreement also promotes the exchange of researchers. Finnish and Indian higher education institutions and research institutes already have many co-operation agreements with Indian players, and a new boost and increase in practical action are now expected for these agreements.

The Academy of Finland, for instance, has implemented targeted joint requests, together with its Indian research funding partner, for proposals in the field of biotechnology research. In addition, new tools for the exchange of experts have been developed by the Academy of Finland, Tekes and Sitra which last year brought a distinguished researcher and 20 postgraduate students from India to Finland.

Link: Text of the Agreement (available in Finnish, Hindi and English)

For further information, please contact:
Mervi Salminen, Senior Adviser, MEE, tel. +358 50 413 5511

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