Finnish companies are growing in Hong Kong

Finnish companies are growing in Hong Kong

Heikki Hakkarainen, the CEO of Talespro, a Finnish health care technology company, has returned from Hong Kong, where his firm has just entered the local market. Based on the start, the future in Hong Kong  looks very promising.

“We have managed to get our product to the market and the future looks promising. So far, the results have been even better than we expected. It all comes down to the preparations and hard work. We had a good business plan, a good team and professional local advisors and partners, who all have played a significant role in the operation.”

Hong Kong offers great opportunities for for Finnish companies

According to Hong Kong based corporate lawyer Jari Vepsäläinen, CEO of the Fintrade-Mercer Group, the case of Talespro is unfortunately still quite unusual. According to him the Hong Kong market offers great opportunities for Finnish companies, but so far quite few are taking advantage of it. There is a great demand especially for Finnish  technology and foodstuff, because the quality is considered to be higher than for local products.

“There have been some, mainly Helsinki based, Finnish companies, that have entered the Hong Kong market, butI believe that there is a lot more to come” says Mr. Vepsaläinen.

Traditional market-entry locations can be difficult

Many Finnish companies have traditionally tried to enter the Chinese market from Beijing or Shanghai. Mr. Vepsäläinen thinks that this is partially because of old habits.

“The traditional locations in China are necessarily not the easiest ones. It is very though to do business in these huge cities and a big part of the Chinese market is still located in the inland and in the smaller cities around the country.

When asked about the level of difficulty to enter the market in Hong Kong , Mr. Hakkarainen compares it to Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, where Talespro has grown before.

“It is much easier to ship products to Hong Kong, than to Norway” says Mr. Hakkarainen.


Read about the subject here. (article is in Finnish)