Team Finland Day at the Head of Missions annual meeting in Helsinki

The Finnish Embassies in the UK and Ireland, in collaboration with Business Finland, joined forces for this year’s Team Finland Day in form of a Brexit Roundtable that attracted approximately 20 companies interested in hearing about this topical issue. Team Finland day was held on 22th August.

The roundtable was chaired by Kristiina Kauppinen, Foreign Ministry Brexit desk, and both Ambassador Markku Keinänen and Ambassador Raili Lahnalampi shared insight from their respective countries. Also, the Finnish Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman and the Finnish Customs were invited to take part in the briefing - from data transfer and tariffs point of view. The discussion led by Kristiina Kauppinen, highlighted on the scenario of a no-deal result from the Brexit negotiations, i.e. if the Great Britain and EU will not agree on steps how Britain will leave the EU. The company Linkosuo gave insight from a company’s point of view on how they are preparing. The main message was: ‘Prepare for the worst but no point of cutting of ties with the UK’. I.e. on a longer term, UK is regarded such an interesting market that they see a lot of market potential in there. Particular if companies are already doing trade with a third country, the situation with the UK should not be any different from this.

During the Team Finland Day, there was also a UK Clinic, moderated by Business Finland and chaired by Ambassador Keinänen who gave an overview of the UK economic situation. The company cases at the UK Clinic were Tridify, and Klinik, both been successful in the UK market. They gave excellent presentations about their story in the UK. The topic of the UK Clinic was ‘How to make success in the UK’, and we focused on hearing from these companies their thoughts and some key learnings for the UK market - in many points they had very similar views.

Besides the UK Clinic and the Brexit Roundtable, there were also speed-dating tables for both the UK and Ireland. At the UK speed dating there were eleven companies approaching the Team Finland team to hear about the UK market. Brexit was not a major topic at the UK speed dating discussions. The companies were from several different industries and very much regarded the UK as an interesting export market of them, regardless of whatever happens in the political front.

There were seven companies attending the Irish speed dating discussions from different sectors. Again, Brexit was not a major topic in their mind. Several companies commented that besides Ireland, they are still very much interested in the UK market, too.

Text by Janna Mure, Business Finland

 

Read more:

Heads of Mission meet in Helsinki(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)

Team Finland(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)