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Free trade on fair play basis is important for a country's long term prosperity, although it seems difficult for someone to accept during economic recession, Finnish Parliament Speaker Eero Heinaluoma said.
He made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua on the eve of an official visit by Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, due on Thursday.
Yu's trip, of which Finland is the first stop, follows another European visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Switzerland and Germany.
Last Friday, China and Switzerland concluded their talks over a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), which will be the first between Beijing and continental Europe.
Heinaluoma said, "So free trade on fair play basis is the important thing. I suppose that the leaders of European Union and China could do a little bit more to develop our cooperation in the future, because obviously there are so much we can do together."
In context of the current wide-spread economic crisis in Europe, Heinaluoma believed one of the parliament's priorities should be promoting free trade.
"I have to say that in this circumstances it is important that the parliaments are working for the interest of ordinary men and women, and safeguard their interests especially when they don't have a job. At the same time, it's important that we are ready to accept the principles of free trade and we are not thinking by closing our borders," said Heinaluoma.
"From historical experience we know that ... in a short period, you can close your borders, but in the long run, you need the expertise technologies and innovations of other countries too," he elaborated.
By keeping its knowledge-based economy in good shape, Finland has performed relatively well among the eurozone nations. The emerging industries like clean-tech, have flourished partly due to the exports of products and services to Germany, Russia and China.
According to Chinese embassador to Finland Huang Xing, Yu Zhengsheng will lead a delegation to explore the possibility of wider cooperation between the two countries on environment friendly industry and ecological civilization construction in the upcoming visit over the weekend.
China has pinned its hope on the know-how from western countries to reform its extensive economy into an intensive, green one.
"It has been in the nature of Finnish people to protect natural environment, and now it seems that this is one of the big things of the whole world," said Heinaluoma, adding that he hoped the inventions and knowledge in Finland "could be useful for Chinese companies, Chinese cities and Chinese society."
According to Huang Xing, a total of 340 Finnish companies are operating in the Chinese mainland, and most of them prove to be profitable. However, far fewer Chinese investors have been seen in Finland, despite the high expectation.
"There is one new possibility to see more investors in Finland," said Heinaluoma, referring to a set of new measures made to facilitate procedures for investors from China, Russia and the United States.
"You could say it's a 'green light'," he answered a question raised by Xinhua reporters.
He said he noticed that there have been some problems to accept Chinese as investors in some Nordic countries, "which is a little bit difficult for me to understand, but nevertheless I have to say that here they are most welcome."
