Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan

FCCJ Luncheon Meeting 23 June 2004

Theme:
"Estonia in the expanded EU and it's cooperation with Nordic countries -
Opportunities for Japan"

Speaker: Mr. Argo Kangro, Charge d'Affaires, Embassy of Estonia

RECAP

Estonia and Finland are very close, Mr. Kango pointed out, actually the Helsinki Airport is closer to Tallinn than Narita is to Tokyo, and there's very frequent connections between Tallinn and Helsinki, by sea and by air. There has even been discussions to build a tunel under the Gulf of Finland. And in the Jones Lang LaSalls' World Winning Cities report, Talsinki (combination of Helsinki and Tallinn) was listed as one of the Furture Rising Urban Stars.

As for Estonia's links to Japan, Mr. Kangro mentioned that alredy in 1934 there was a commerce agreement between the two countries. Although the relations have long traditions, the trade is still small, Estonia's export to Japan amounted to only about 15 mill. euros in 2003 (mainly wood and articles of wood). Japan's export to Estonia is much bigger, 223 mill. euros. In this export there is also a Finnish connection as a substantial part of this is mobile phone components shipped from Japan to the Elcoteq factory in Estonia.

The meeting was attended by 23 members and guests.

For more about Estonia: http://www.investinestonia.com

IMAGES FROM THE MEETING

"Ladies and gentlemen"... FCCJ Board Member Juhana Häkkänen (Vaisala K.K.) who chaired the meeting introcudes the guest speaker.	Argo Kangro during his presentation.
Participants listening with interest to the presentation.	More attentive audience.
Moritaka Fukuda of Elcoteq Japan explains about Elcoteq's activities in Estonia.	Erro Tammila of Finnair told that the number of Japanese travelling by Finniar to the Baltic countries is increasing rapidly.
Matti Heimonen, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of Finland told the participants about the Jpanese Tea ROom recently opened at Suomenlinna in Helsinki.	Mr. Häkkänen presents Mr. Kangro with a small present of appreciation.