Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen lead a Team Finland visit to Denmark on 4–5 September. Denmark is Finland’s 15th largest export country and the 10th biggest import-trading partner. Denmark provides untapped opportunities for companies within the field of health technology, both at the level of the five regions governing hospitals as well as municipalities. Furthermore, the several ongoing hospital projects offer a good steppingstone into the Danish market.
Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen lead a Team Finland visit to Denmark on 4–5 September. A delegation of 17 Finnish companies participated on the trip. The main topics of discussion during the visit were health technology, digital healthcare and hospital solutions.
During the first day, they visited Confederation of Danish Industry, VihTek innovation centre in Glostrup, New North Zealand Hospital and Nordic Health Lab. They also had a working lunch at Ambassador Vesa Vasara’s residence.
The second day they visited Odense University Hospital, participated in a networking event organized in co-operation with Welfare Tech and met with the Mayor of the City of Odense, Peter Rahbæk Juel.
Many untapped opportunities on the Danish market
Denmark is Finland’s 15th largest export country and the 10th biggest import-trading partner. Compared to Finland’s trade with Sweden and Norway, Denmark is a clearly smaller trading partner.
’’There is still much untapped potential for commercial and economic cooperation between our close neighboring countries,’’ says Minister Anne-Mari Virolainen.
“In international markets, Denmark is a leading competitor in digital healthcare solutions and can serve as a gateway to not only Nordic but also international markets. In addition, big hospital projects in Denmark offer good business opportunities for Finnish companies,” she continues.
Copenhagen is also a central point of UN procurement processes. From the point of view of procurement, the most important organizations in Copenhagen are the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNPD), the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Health technology is of key importance for UN procurements.
The next Nordic UN Procurement Seminar will be held Copenhagen 12-13 November 2018.
Health technology clusters help create networks
Denmark has strong health technology clusters, through which it is possible to create networks in the health technology markets. An example of this is Welfare Tech in Odense, which minister Virolainen and the Finnish companies visited on September 5th.
Local events in the health sector, such as WHINN – Week of Health and Innovation in Odense, are also great places to become acquainted with other actors within the same field, find new partners and become acquainted with potential customers and their needs.
WHINN 2018 is organized on 9-11 October. A group of 10 Finnish companies will participate in the event with a shared Finland-stand for the fourth time in a row.
The company NewIcon, which also participated on the Team Finland visit, recounts its own road to the Danish market:
“There is a very interesting innovation environment in Denmark. Furthermore, the numerous ongoing hospital projects offer a great steppingstone into the market. To our joy the successful testing of the Smart Medicine Cabinet in Odense university hospital led to a trade”, says Maria Jaurakkajärvi from NewIcon.
Minister Virolainen’s visit was organised in cooperation with Business Finland, which is part of Team Finland in Denmark.
Article Source: http://finland.dk/public/default.aspx?contentid=378043&nodeid=35923&culture=da-DK
