2017-06-29

Energy Week in Bejing

A Chinese-Finnish cooperation event, International Clean-tech & Energy Week took place 13-21 of May 2017 in Beijing and was a continuation of the first Road Show held in Beijing in October 2016. It was based on energy technology from Vaasa and the aim was to transfer the good spirit from Vaasa Energy Week to China’s capital.

The Finnish companies Wapice, Subsea, Noveteks, Aalto Universtiy, Weeefinder, Mincor Oy, Arcteq, Citex and Skaala held a Road Show presentation together.

- China is developing and actively seeking energy efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for all industries. The energy cluster in Vaasa is already well-known at the technology center in Beijing, Beijing e-Town, which also is to consider an energy cluster, says Lasse Pohjala, Senior Business Advisor at VASEK.

- The purpose of the event is to create an opportunity for companies from Vaasa to expand their business to China, Lasse Pohjala continues. We do this by offering contacts to companies and universities in Beijing so that a company receives local support both in Finland and China. In Vaasa, this company is Fortune High Oy.

According to Pohjala, one can reach 16,000 companies in Beijing alone through these partners.

- If a company In Vaasa shows interest in Beijing, we try to find a partner in a field suitable for that company. Goldwin which is the third largest wind power company in the world and Tellhow which are working with IoT are two examples of companies within the Chinese cluster and they presented their organization at the event. For the Finnish companies, matchmaking-meetings were arranged with these two companies.

Conditions for cooperation were established during the trip.

- During the summer of 2016, a pre-agreement was signed for establishing a Nordic technology transfer center in Vaasa, and now the doors were opened to a Chinese-Finnish technology center at Beijing e-Town. The technology center will be a focal point for Finnish companies in Beijing. The connections and the venues can be used for activities like pop-up offices as an example, says Pohjala.

Vaasa and the companies from the Vaasa region had good exposure at the International Clean-tech & Energy Week. The event was, however, just one of many and continuous work is required to build partnerships between companies. VASEK’s activities in China is not solely for Finnish companies, but also Swedish companies participating in the Cleantech Kvarken project were invited to the first International Clean-tech & Energy Week being organized in China.

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