A number of agreements between Chinese and Finnish enterprises were signed in Helsinki during the Chinese trade and investment promotion mission's visit to Finland on Friday, bringing tremendous progress in bilateral economic and trade relations.

More than 600 representatives from the business communities of both countries participated in the China-Finland Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum with the theme of Cooperation, Innovation and Win-Win on Friday. Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce and head of the mission Gao Hucheng, Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Vyrynen and Finnish Employment and Economy Minister Mauri Pekkarinen attended the forum.

Gao said that under the circumstances where the global financial crisis further spreads and the economy of various countries is severely battered, the two governments and business communities of China and Finland are still adhering to the proposition of free trade and dedicating themselves to jointly enhancing Sino-Finnish cooperation in such areas as energy conservation, environment protection and high tech, thus fully demonstrating the two governments' position to fight trade protectionism with concrete actions and rise up to the crisis together.

Vyrynen said in his keynote speech that the Sino-Finnish economic and commercial relations have developed remarkably during the last three decades. China has become Finland's largest trading partner in Asia. And for China, Finland is the biggest trading partner among all the Nordic countries.

The visit of the Chinese trade mission to Finland is definitely positive under the circumstances where the economic activity has slowed down all over the world because of the recession, according to Vyrynen.

Through the China-Finland Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum, many Chinese and Finnish companies have established networking and enhanced cooperation in the fields of energy and environment technology, information and communication technology, electronics, infrastructure, machinery and equipment, life sciences, health care and food industry.

Chinese companies signed purchase agreements with Finnish Nokia and Metso for telecommunications equipments and paper making machines. The two governments also signed the memorandum of understanding on expansion of two-way investment between China and Finland on Friday.

After the forum, Gao and Vyrynen held talks and exchanged opinions on the expansion of two-way investment, the WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiation and other bilateral and multilateral issues.

This is China's fourth such trade mission to Europe this year. The present mission is composed of nearly 240 delegates from more than 150 Chinese enterprises in 20 Chinese provinces and municipalities. They are traveling to Portugal on Saturday after their visit to Finland.