INTERVIEW/Finnish envoy targets tech, energy, civil resilience ties with Taiwan

Taipei, Jan. 12 (CNA) Finland's top representative in Taipei has said that his country and Taiwan could complement each other's strengths and work closer together on technology, green energy, civil resilience, and more.

In an interview with CNA Wednesday, Lauri Raunio, the head of the Finland Trade Center (TFC) in Taiwan since mid-2022, said bilateral trade has significantly warmed over the past few years despite the geographic distance between the two sides.

Finnish Customs data showed that two-way trade between Taiwan and Finland jumped from around 600 million euros in 2019 to an annual 1.3 billion euros, Raunio said.

The sectors that have contributed to the significant hike in bilateral trade are Taiwan's exports of semiconductors, microelectronics and electro-mechanics, according to Raunio.

"I'm very happy to see that the overall trade between Finland and Taiwan has more than doubled in the past three to four years."

Praising Taiwan's strength in semiconductors, the envoy noted that Taiwan's biggest company in Finland is currently MediaTek Inc. The Hsinchu-based smartphone IC designer has a research and development center in Oulu, central Finland.

Like Taiwan, Finland is also known for its high-tech sector, particularly for producing high-value innovations and research, Raunio said.

Finland is internationally renowned for its patented new technologies, he said, noting that a 2024 report by the European Patent Office showed Finland applied for the fourth most patents per capita among all European countries, with 422.1 applications per 1 million inhabitants.

"We [Finland] have a pretty solid base of software engineers, combining the hardware from Taiwan [and] software from Finland," he said, adding both could complement each other's strengths.

Aside from high-tech sector cooperation, Finland's expertise in geothermal energy, hydrogen power and solid recovered fuels, among others, can be of help as Taiwan moves toward phasing out nuclear power, he said.

Asked about his view on Taiwan's ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the envoy said Taiwan has demonstrated that it is serious about this goal.

"The important thing is that you have the will and kind of commitment to do something because that's the first thing … if you're serious or not. And I think Taiwan is pretty serious."

Civil defense

The envoy told CNA that his homeland is geographically roughly the same size as Japan, but with a population of only 5.5 million people.

Given these circumstances, conscription service is the most cost-effective way to safeguards Finland's borders, he said.

Finland and Taiwan both have conscription systems that have existed for decades. Military service is mandatory for all male Finnish citizens, while women can volunteer.

Finland also has a robust civil security system, including mandating that new buildings have civil shelters since 1930s, which could be a focus point for exchanges with Taiwan, Raunio said.

In addition, Finland has regularly published and updated its crisis preparedness guide for households over the years, Raunio noted.

These guides are meant to raise emergency preparedness and awareness among Finnish people so that they know what to do and where to go in case of a crisis or other emergencies, the envoy added.

Finland could also learn from Taiwan's disaster relief efforts given that the latter has a lot of experience with earthquakes and typhoons and disaster relief efforts, Raunio said.

Raunio, who took up the post in Taipei in August 2022, said he has been trying to promote better understanding between Taiwanese and Finnish people given the relative unfamiliarity between the two and the long distance between Helsinki and Taipei.

But Raunio said he had seen first hand that Finns and Taiwanese are "getting along very well despite the geographical distance," citing a shared system of values and "straightforward" nature.

Raunio is also an avid long-distance runner who runs across Taiwan whenever he has time.

Though modestly calling running his "hobby," Raunio has won a few smaller marathons in Taiwan as well as the 2023 Belau Omal Marathon in Palau.

He praised Taiwan as a great place for runners with comfortable riverside paths and beautiful views that one can enjoy even in winter.