Finnish Ambassador to Egypt Laura Kansikas-Debraise said that her embassy is mulling a visit of a Finnish business delegation to the local market in the fall, adding that Finnish investors are interested in the Egyptian market.
“We are trying to see the kind of interest from Finnish companies that want to visit Egypt. We are working on that, but it’s Ramadan then summer, which will slow the working pace,” the ambassador told Daily News Egypt.
Kansikas-Debraise noted that there are negotiations on a planned visit by Egypt’s minister of education, Tarek Shawky, to Finland, adding, “we have determined the date several times, but unfortunately it was postponed, but we are still working on that.”
She added that Shawky has very ambitious plans to reform the Egyptian education system and Finland could help those efforts by sharing its experience of reforming its educational system, noting, “I met the minister a couple of times and he has a lot of very good ideas.”
Moreover, the ambassador added that Egypt’s minister of education is to meet with his Finnish counterpart and visit some educational institutions during the planned visit. However, the ambassador noted that Finland is awaiting Egypt’s cabinet reshuffle to plan accordingly for the minister’s visit.
The ambassador declined to comment on Shawky’s recent decision on experimental schools, saying she does not have the enough information about the minister’s plans.
“We receive a lot of inquiries about the Egyptian market from Finnish companies, which indicates the great interest of investors, especially in the clean tech domain,” noted the ambassador.
Meanwhile, she said that her country began to share with Egypt its experience in the field of startups, adding that startups are a gateway to the future, as they create jobs and help in developing the economy.
On another note, the Finnish Embassy in Cairo, in cooperation with international digital infrastructure company NxtVn and the entrepreneurship centre of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport (AAST) launched FinnStart Cairo 2018 for 130 representatives of emerging Egyptian startup companies on Saturday.
