A Year Of Living Dangerously – 2020 In Review
2020 was a big year in many ways, the pandemic, lockdowns, recessions, US elections and plenty more. But you all know about these things already, so here at Fintrade we thought to instead write about some of the more interesting projects we’ve had in 2020 and beyond.
Norsepower Sets Sail For China
In 2020 Fintrade worked closely with Norsepower a “Rotor Sail” company in the shipping industry. Rotor Sails are large towers which rotate in the wind and generate propulsion like a sail which greatly increases fuel efficiency onboard large vessels. We asked the General Manager of Yancheng operations Xiaozuan Wu (Jaakko Wu) for comment:
Despite the pandemic, lockdown, trade conflicts, and recessions to the world’s economies in 2020, the irreversible trend of having a clean and decarbonized shipping industry is unstoppable. Norsepower is accomplishing deliveries to three more ships in 2020 including the first ever tiltable option to newly-built carriers.
Futhermore the business expansion comes to China and Asia-Pacific where more than three quarters of the world’s shipbuilding capacity is located.
There isn’t a standard recipe for managing the zero to one process of establishment and internationalization to China. However, Fintrade has delivered a unique experience to Norsepower China when China was completely locked down during early spring of 2020. Alongside SISU, commitment, and the sheer determination of Norsepower China’s board of Directors, the expertise from Fintrade has been crucial to set sail and weather through storms of uncertainty during the COVID19 pandemic. Payback starts already before Christmas, Norsepower will soon have the first prototype manufactured in China.
China Risk Management Seminar Success
Despite Covid-19 delaying plans, Fintrade Academy was finally able to host the long awaited China Leadership Excellence Seminar with Jari Vepsäläinen celebrating the 35th anniversary of Fintrade. The seminar brought together some of Finland’s most ambitious executives to discuss the biggest challenges in China and how to tackle them, as well as the remarkable opportunities and how to sieze them. The seminar was a must-see if you wanted to learn about establishing a business in China. China is ripe with opportunity, but also rife with risk if you don’t have the proper expertise.
Topics included the update of the business climate in China, new company law, Corporate Social Credit System, blacklisting, fraud prevention, and how to manage risks involved in legal compliance issues. This was mixed with with cultural matters that need to be taken into account when working in China. Other topics discussed at length were Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in China and how to keep IP safe. Following on Jari discuss the procurement process of public tendering in China, the practicalities involved and more. It’s a lot to learn but Jari kept the topics interesting and light with anecdotes and quick tips punctuated by some discussion from participants.
During the seminar we also had the opportunity to hear several real world cases from Fintrade. Guest speaker Erkko Fontell of Convion also presented a case on how they established operations in China as well as fielding questions on what challenges they had to overcome.
Overall the day was a success and Fintrade Academy was able to impart some of its extensive wisdom acquired over the past 35 years to future Finland-China business leaders.
Looking Forward to 2021
During the latter part of 2020, the Chinese economy had already rebounded to pre-covid growth, and so have foreign invested businesses. With this development in mind Fintrade is planning to execute some exciting business missions in 2021 both in Finland, and in China.
Fintrade Promoting Pandas With Ähtäri Zoo
Pyry, two Giant Panda Bears from China. Lumi meaning “Snow” and Pyry meaning “Snow Squall.” Aptly named for their colours and the new home they were coming to inhabit. They arrived here to Finland as a gift from the Chinese government on a 15 year mission before returning home. It is considered a sign of peace and respect from China if they trust another country like Finland to look after their beloved Panda Bears.
The Giant Panda is a vulnerable species whose origins date back 20 million years, but there is now less than 2000 left in the wild, fortunately the numbers have been growing in the last 30 years as China has made efforts to preserve them.
Lumi and Pyry were brought to Finland on a diplomatic mission, but also so they could be researched and perhaps even breed. Ähtäri Zoo has had a wonderful time keeping these great creatures, they have a huge enclosure with plenty of room for the Pandas to roam and eat, and boy do they eat.
Keeping a Panda comes at no small cost, and that’s why Fintrade and Ähtäri have partnered to help support Lumi and Pyry and their stay in Finland. This project is known as Team Panda and Fintrade will soon come public with the promotional packages and further details.
Be sure to contract Fintrade already if this is of interest to you.
Pandas Go Olympics
Fintrade has once again made plans to take Finnish companies to the China Olympics for the Beijing 2022 winter games. The last time Fintrade did it was for the 2008 Beijing Olympics which was a huge success culminating into a 12 day roadshow in China with a slew of networking, company visits, partnerships and excitement going on ahead of the games.
The 2022 package ties in with the Panda sponsorship we are doing with Ähtäri and the iconic Panda mascot present at the games with year.
This package will kick off January 28th at MIF Finland with a free Business Coffee, all companies welcome. The follow-on will be lengthy plan including tailored consulting services from Fintrade, access to online expos for participating companies, and networking opportunities to sell to China business and government ahead of the Beijing 2022 games, a time of huge spending and internationalization.
More to come on that front, contact Fintrade if you would like to hear more!
Merry Christmas!
To wrap up the year, Fintrades wishes to send you warm wishes for the holiday season, so Merry Christmas to you all from the Fintrade team! We look forward to seeing you all again in 2021!
Thank you for being part of an exceptional year!