Finland to attract more migrant workers from Vietnam

By Viet Nguyen

Finland has identified Brazil, India, Vietnam and Turkey as four special target countries to attract immigrants.

The Nordic country will send “talent advisors” to the four above countries, where partnerships will be created for recruitment in various sectors, said the Ministry of Economy Affairs and Employment of Finland (MEAE)’s Migration Director, Sonja Hammainen, at a press conference on November 30th.

According to MEAE, Finland aims to attract doubling the number of immigrants in the field of employment from now to 2030. In the health care sector, the number of foreign workers can contribute about 10% of human resources in Finland over the next 10 years. The UN figures show that for every 100 employees in Finland, more than 39 people are over 65. With this ratio, Finland is only behind Japan in the level of population aging. It is expected that by 2030, the percentage of workers over 65 will account for 47.5% of the country’s population.

In order to achieve the goal of attracting 50,000 immigrants in Finland by 2030 and 250,000 by 2050, MEAE implemented the recruitment program named “Talent Boost Program” in order to attract experts and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley (USA) and from New Delhi (India). However, the results were not as expected. That programme only attracted immigrants from India. Up to now, 5,800 Indians have been licensed to reside in Finland under this program. MEAE acknowledged that Finland’s attractiveness for highly skilled international experts is relatively low so far.

Earlier, on October 26, Mr. Keijo Norvanto, Finish Ambassador to Vietnam had a meeting with Mr. Le Tan Dung, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam in order to promote cooperation between the two countries in the field of vocational education. At the meeting, Mr. Keijo Norvanto shared that Finland is lacking in labor, especially in the fields of agriculture, health care... So, it is necessary for the Nordic nation to recruit foreign workers, including Vietnamese workers.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (2nd, R) at the Findel airport in Luxembourg, December 9, 2022. Photo by Nhat Bac

By Viet Nguyen

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the 45th anniversary of the EU – ASEAN relations in Brussels, Belgium and paid official visits to some European countries.

On the sidelines of the summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also met with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to discuss enhancing relations between the two countries in the fields of politics, economy, culture, science, education… in the coming time, especially on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the two nations (1969 – 2024).

The 2022 Summit took place in the context of geopolitical tensions in Europe impacted by the Russian – Ukrainian war. For these reasons, ASEAN has a greater significance for Europe on economic, diplomatic and security fronts. In December 2020, the EU and ASEAN upgraded bilateral relations to a “strategic partnership”.

The EU and ASEAN want to develop the supply chain at this December meeting. The pandemic has stagnated the import of medical products and automobile components for the European bloc, this bloc is expected to provide economic cooperation agreements and infrastructure aid to Southeast Asian countries. Europe will encourage Southeast Asia to implement the main role in the supply chain for the West.

The EU is considering a free trade agreement with the whole ASEAN while focusing on separate bilateral trade agreements. This bloc currently has free trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam and is seeking to accelerate similar negotiations with other ASEAN members, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand.

As one of the two ASEAN countries currently having a free trade agreement with the EU, Vietnam is expected to emphasize its outstanding role in meetings with EU partners to assert its ambitions to become a more important link in the global supply chain, while attracting European investment sources for the country’s “green transformation” and “digital transformation” strategies. In addition, Vietnam will also mobilize the EU to soon approve the EU – Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and remove the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) “yellow card” that had been placed on this country.

In addition to attending the summit, the Prime Minister of Vietnam will also pay official visits to Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium to promote bilateral relations between Vietnam and these countries.

NordCham Indonesia announced the period for an additional round of the NordCham Sustainability Committee Meeting, which would take place on 8 February 2023.

The Chamber declared the Nordic countries are at the forefront of sustainability globally and initiated the Sustainability Committee Meetings in line with the Nordic countries’ pledge to make the Nordic region the most sustainable in the world and to take on international leadership in the fight against climate change.

The meeting would focus on supporting the government of Indonesia in reaching its SDG Goals, sharing experiences and best practices on operating a business sustainably in Indonesia and updates on regulations related to CSR and sustainable development.

All Nordic companies with an interest in above-mentioned topics are welcome to join, although a NordCham Indonesia membership is required.

On behalf of the Malaysian Youth Association for Diplomacy and Policy, the European Union in Malaysia encouraged the youth to join the EUASEAN Youth Diplomats Program on 17-19 February 2023.

The event would take place over the course of a three-day conference, a simulation exercise aiming to simulate dialogue between EU and ASEAN member states. It is considered to be the first of its kind and had been put together for youths who are interested in learning more about what it takes to becoming diplomats.

Participants would have the opportunity to play the role of heads of governments of EU and ASEAN member states and engage in multilateral dialogue on issues that affects us today.

Prior to the three-day summit, there would be held a series of hybrid engaging workshops led by policy makers, change-makers and leaders for youths who interested in current affairs and politics.

The Malaysian Youth Association expressed its hope that many young people would join in to network with other like-minded youths through a series of politically charged simulations of EU-ASEAN relations, relevant to the current geopolitical scene.