II. Trade Relations and Economic-Technological Cooperation

The Chinese and Finnish economies are complementary to each other. Since the 1980s, the economic and trade relations between the two countries have developed rapidly and bilateral trade volume has increased by a big margin. According to statistics of the Chinese Customs, the total trade volume between China and Finland in 2002 was US$2.67 billion. At present, China's main exports to Finland are textiles and garments, cereals, oils and foodstuffs, light industrial products and mechanical equipment, and China's main imports from Finland are paper-making machines, generating sets, paper and paper board, composite fertilizer, wires and cables and telecommunication equipment.

By the end of 2000, loans granted by the Finnish Government to the Chinese side has totaled up to US$ 485 million in financing 83 Chinese projects. In 2002, Finland invested in 19 projects in China with a contractual value of US$ 67.55 million and an implemented value of more than US$ 64.65 million. By now, a total of 150 investment projects were signed, with contracted investment worth US$560 million and the capital actually utilized totaling US$400 million. There are over 110 Sino-Finnish joint-ventures in China, among which the main ones are Valmet (Xian) Paper Machine Co. Ltd., Nokia (Beijing) Mobile Telecommunications Ltd., Kone Elevators Co. Ltd. in Jiangsu Province. In 1988, Finnish Airline opened the Helsinki-Beijing direct air route.