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Solid base for enhancement of ties The UAE represents a stable and predictable business environment with long-term potential and prospects for the Finns
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inland and the UAE enjoy excellent bilateral relations at all levels including trade and business. Ilkka-Pekka Similä, Ambassador, Embassy of Finland, Abu Dhabi, shared his thoughts with Khaleej Times. Excerpts from the interview: Finland-UAE ties… The UAE has been one of the main trading partners of Finland in the Middle East and the Gulf region. The number of Finnish companies operating in the UAE is growing and so is the number of Finns residing in the country. More and more Finnish tourists visit the UAE annually. The excellent bilateral relations offer a solid base for further enhancement of trade and business partnership between Finland and the UAE. To Finland the UAE represents a stable and predictable business environment with long-term potential and prospects. Growing business ties also give an excellent opportunity for two small nations from different circumstances to share experiences and best practices and explore new avenues of cooperation. Recent joint initiatives… Finland has traditionally been presented in the UAE through big companies such as Nokia. The growth in numbers has shifted recently towards smaller new generation high-tech solutions and ecofriendly companies, as well as engineering consulting ones. One
of the latest avenues of cooperation is education where Finland and Abu Dhabi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2010. We are currently exploring the possibilities for cooperation in the field of healthcare and wellbeing and there are several areas of cooperation with great potential. We are also expanding the network of agreements and MoUs.
KT photo by Nezar Balout
Suchitra Steven Samuel
Details of high level visits… During the last few years there have been several minister level visits from Finland to the UAE. This year the Finnish Prime Minister and the Foreign Trade Minister arrived with large business delegations consisting of some of the leading Finnish companies covering architecture and design, business services, construction and infrastructure, defence, education, energy and renewable energy, and healthcare. Many delegations from the UAE have respectively visited Finland; including high level visits of Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, former Minister of Energy Mohammed bin Dhaen Al Hamili and Minister of Education Humaid Mohammed Obeid Al Qattami. Regular visits further strengthen bilateral relations and give boost to develop trade and business relations. Recent milestones... Finland is approaching the centennial of independence. In four years’ time we shall reach the milestone of 100 years. The past 96 years of independence have witnessed great progress. In particular, after
Ilkka-Pekka Similä the Second World War Finland has made a remarkable transformation from a farm and forest economy to a modern industrial welfare state, to a free market economy. Behind the rapid social-economic development is the comprehensive education system and effective nationwide pooling of scarce resources. Over the decades, this has meant equal opportunities for all. This environment has been conducive to innovations and new technological solutions. Without this wise policy line, a small nation of around five million people would never have been able to create world-class industrial success stories, such as Nokia for example. We Finns are result-oriented people with the capability of tackling and solving problems, whether it comes to engineering and technology, design and functionality or international peace mediation. Favoured Finnish products... Here are some major Finnish export products to the UAE. Telecommunications and sound recording equipment, electric machinery, power generating machinery and equipment, paper/ board, machinery for specialised industries, iron and steel. Export profiles also include new generation high tech and eco-friendly solutions and consultancy services. UAE businesses can invest in... Finland is an advanced industrial
economy with a thriving private sector and a business environment that is highly conducive to FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). The government is business-friendly, and the country has a developed infrastructure, a skilled workforce and competitive operating costs. Red tape is minimal and Finland is one of the least corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International. Sectors that offer reliable investment opportunities are for example mining, bioenergy, water technology, wood construction and logistics (energy grids, data centres) and tourism. Foreign investment in Finland is welcomed as a boost to the dynamism of the economy. As one of the most competitive and open economies in the world, Finland has a great deal to offer foreign investors. The Finnish Economy is knowledge-based and strong on innovations. It is among the top countries globally in terms of R&D spending per capita. Finnish companies and consumers are early adopters of emerging technologies, which makes Finland an ideal test bed for new solutions and technologies. Finnish government incentives... Foreign-owned companies in Finland are eligible for a wide range of government and EU incentives on an equal footing with Finnishowned companies. Foreign-owned companies can benefit from government investment incentives and access to the research from the extensive cooperation between Finnish universities and the private sector. Incentives include business aid, loans and guarantees by Finnvera (state-owned financing company), EU-funded support, R&D and innovation incentives by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), capital investments from Finnish Industry Investment, and R&D tax break for companies. On average, about 200 foreign companies locate in Finland every year. One of the main reasons for coming to Finland is access to the Finnish and surrounding markets of 80 million consumers. Finland also provides an ideal entry to the East and business gateway to Russia.
Turning bright ideas into smart solutions The company offers career opportunities as it expands operations in the Arabian Gulf Neste Jacobs is a preferred solution provider of high-quality technology, engineering and project services for a wide range of industries in the oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals and biotechnology fields. With a successful track record spanning more than 50 years, the company’s expertise lies in combining in-depth technology knowhow with project management and operational skills. In 2011, Neste Jacobs opened a branch office in Abu Dhabi in line with its strategy to enhance its presence in the Arabian Gulf region and better serve the Samuli Kyttala local industry. In June this year, Neste Jacobs was awarded a major contract by Borouge for tier 1 engineering, project management and consultancy services. Under the long-term contract, Neste Jacobs will deliver specialised services such as studies, design, engineering, project management and support services connected with implementation of projects, as well as services related to development of process, automation and plant performance. Abu Dhabi-based Borouge is one of the world’s leading polyolefins producers with its Ruwais plant slated to become the largest integrated polyolefin complex by the year 2014. The contract with Borouge represents an important step forward for Neste Jacobs and the company is now looking at a significant increase in its pool of talent over the coming months. “As we work towards realising our vision of being the preferred solution provider for hydrocarbon industries, we always welcome high-level professionals to work for us,” says Samuli Kyttala, Vice-President, Middle East Operations of Neste Jacobs. “We would like to see the specialists in process development and design, automation technology, project management and other engineering disciplines to explore the possibility of taking up a career with us.” “Especially now, to support our ongoing expansion and reinforce our presence in the region we are actively seeking qualified expat and local engineering talent to join our teams. Those interested can reach us through our website: www.nestejacobs.com or email us at paras@nestejacobs.com,” Kyttala adds. Neste Jacobs currently employs around 1,000 professionals at its offices in Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Singapore and the UAE.
— suchitra@khaleejtimes.com
Empowering service providers The company has over 1,100 telecom professionals in 12 countries including the UAE
Congratulations Wärtsilä wishes Finland and its people a happy 96TH Independence Day. Wärtsilä is a global leader in complete lifecycle power solutions for the marine and energy markets. By emphasising technological innovation and total efficiency, Wärtsilä maximises the environmental and economic performance of the vessels and power plants of its customers. Wärtsilä is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, Finland.
Tecnotree is a global provider of telecom IT solutions predominantly focused on charging, billing, customer care, offerings management and delivery of digital content. Excerpts from an interview with Stavros Vougas, Regional Vice-President, MEA and APAC: Give us a brief on Tecnotree and its operations around the world. What are the company’s key areas of specialisation? Tecnotree empowers service providers to monetise service bundles, provide personalised user experiences and improve value propositions throughout the customers’ lifecycle. Tecnotree has over 1,100 telecom professionals in 12 countries including the UAE and research and development centres in Finland, Ireland, Argentina and India. Our customers range from large and well-established regional telecom operator groups to smaller tier-2 players. What according to you gives Tecnotree its technological edge as a solutions provider? Tecnotree profiles itself as an agile, customer focused company with its own Tecnotree Agility product suite designed to help opera-
tors to move their business towards a marketplace of digital services. The modular and scalable suite architecture allows us to address a wide range of customer opportunities ranging from single-product deployments to fullscale, integrated solution deliveries. Stavros Vougas However, before solving any IT centric problems, today we are increasingly being asked to identify business process enhancement opportunities that can lead to IT solutions. This is well in line with our customer management centric approach, as it touches every step of the operator value chain from service creation to offer bundling and monetisation to customer lifecycle management. Last, we offer our customer the flexibility to take our technologies into use with their choice of business model such as conventional software licensing, managed service or cloud. Please give us an overview of the company’s presence in the Gulf countries. Does it focus on any particular areas here? What companies does it work with? Tecnotree has a presence throughout the Middle East, as well as the majority of the African continent. We have been in the region for more than a decade and our office in Dubai is the headquarters for the Middle East and Africa as well as Asia Pacific. We feel it is very important to be close to our customers and hence our regional staff include profes-
sionals from all levels of different functions such as sales, presales, customer operations, marketing and general administration. Our success in the region has been greatly influenced by growing telecoms markets in the Middle East and Africa, and specifically the liberalisation of communications sector in the Gulf region since mid 2000. Our customers include leading communications service providers such as Du, subsidiaries of MTN, Zain, and Oreedoo Group. How important is the Gulf market and what is your outlook for the region? The Gulf telecom market is presently at a stage of maturity and the growth is likely to come from somewhere else but increase of subscriber penetration. Communications service providers are shifting their focus on improving their operational efficiency by lowering operational costs and maximising their top line by putting more emphasis on customer retention and loyalty. Furthermore, the continuing growth of smartphones, explosion of digital services and increasing importance of social media and Internet in general, all contribute to the surge of mobile data and have become part of monetisation plans with operators. We clearly see a shift in priorities from traditional voice and text message services to bundled personalised offerings, peer recommendations and customer satisfaction across all interaction points be them retail, call centres, online or mobile. The outlook for the region from Tecnotree’s perspective is very positive. Many of our customers in the Middle East and Africa are very forward looking, manifested well by their ongoing actions to improve in parallel both internal processes and supporting IT systems.
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ing and implementing power and water projects. We also work on projects in the forest products industry together with our European colleagues.” Dubai is the regional hub for the energy business group of Pöyry. It also hosts the management consulting practice that provides services for both the energy and industry Niklas Weckström sector. In the energy business group, Pöyry supports the development of the cat, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in 1983, 1995 power and water infrastructure in the and 1996, respectively. country and the region. Its clientele cov“We were then known as Electrowatt ers a wide spectrum ranging from regulaEngineering, a Swiss company that Pöyry tors and government utilities to large deacquired in the 90s. We had continued velopers and private companies. with the Electrowatt brand name in the “Our engineers work, for example, with Middle East till 2008, when we changed Dubai Electricity and Water Authority the name to Pöyry,” says Niklas Weck- (DEWA) designing substations, and in ström, Head, Management Consulting Saudi Arabia, we supervise large power Middle East of Pöyry Energy Ltd in and water desalination projects,” explains Dubai. “We have 150 Pöyry employees Weckström. Pöyry management consulserving the entire region focusing mainly tants have been active in helping the UAE on the energy sector, developing, design- and Saudi Arabia diversify their energy
Forerunners in the industry
PÖYRY helps increase efficiency in power and water industries Latha Krishnan Established by Dr Jaakko Pöyry in 1958 in Finland, Pöyry today is a worldleading consulting and engineering company, serving clients globally across the energy and industrial sectors with offices in over 50 countries and 6,500 employees. Pöyry has been operating in the Middle East since 1973, when it executed its first project for the Saudi Electric Company, followed by setting up offices in Mus-
mix by being less reliant on oil and gas and embracing renewable as well as nuclear energy sources. It helps independent power producers (IPPs) increase efficiency and grow its existing asset portfolios. Pöyry works with regulators and government en-
tities to make the power and water system more efficient in all aspects including generation, dispatching, demand-side-management (DSM) and smart grids. It will also continue to increase its efforts in the gas sector. “We have been and will continue to concretely help the UAE lay the foundation to diversify its energy mix as well as reach its high targets in energy and water usage efficiency,” states Weckström.