MattiVanhanen, former Finnish Prime Minister, former Chairman of the Centre Party and current chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Parliament, and his delegation visit ZhongguancunSoftware Park on February 21, 2017. (Photo: website of ZhongguancunSoftware Park)

The time-honored friendship and frequent high-level visits between China and Finland have given a boost to their in-depth collaboration. Zhongguancun, a technology hub in Beijing, also contributed to this process by working as a bridge of innovation cooperation between enterprises of the two countries.

Remarkable accomplishments have been yielded from the hub’s endeavor in propelling exchanges of Chinese and Finnish institutions, mergers and market access of respective companies, personnel training and communication, project collaboration as well as technology transfer.

Its representative software park, for instance, has organized several delegations to visit Finland starting from 2004, and at the same time hosted Finnish prime minister, mayors, heads of industrial zones as well as other governmental and business delegations.

The software park has also organized forums themed on bilateral innovation cooperation and business dialogues, while registeringa host of projects on inter-governmental cooperation.

What’s more, aninnovationcooperationcenter on technology between China and Finland has been set up in Helsinki by administrative committee of the hub, the Zhongguancun Development Group, the government of Haidian District where the park is located, together with Finnish governmental institutions.

With concerted efforts from governmental departments, operation platforms and industrial parks, the center works as both nations’stagefor innovation cooperation.

Thanks to the platform’s communication and mediation, China-funded companies have concluded the deals to acquire Finnish air cleaning expert AAVI Technologies, software house Progman and Mobile operating system maker Jolla.

It also managed to introduce SLUSH, a big event for Finnish startup, to China. As a platform and bridge connecting startups, tech talent with top-tier international investors, executives and media, SLUSH has grown into one of the leading startup and technology events in Europe.

SLUSH China was organized in the software park for the first time in 2015, during which 80 dialogue events were hosted for 1,200 guests, including 340 startups and 250 investors from 13 countries.

After the SLUSH event came to China, the center also played a propelling part in a cooperation agreement on innovation fund among Finpro, a public organization consisting of Export Finland, Visit Finland and Invest in Finland, administrative committee of Zhongguancun, and Haidian government, laying a foundation for further China-Finland cooperation in high-tech fields.

In a visit to the software park this February, MattiVanhanen, former Finnish Prime Minister and current chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Parliament, praised the park’s achievements in recent years.

Vanhanen, also former Chairman of the Centre Party, promised to expanda complementary and win-win technology cooperation between the two nations to more fields.