Address of thanks by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen at lunch hosted by Vice-President of Brazil José Alencar Gomes da Silva

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Your Excellency, Mr. Vice-President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to you, Mr. Vice-President, for hosting this excellent luncheon in such a beautiful setting. This is a pleasant way to end a very successful visit to Brazil.

This trip has been rewarding in many ways, including interesting discussions with the President, and meetings with the ministers of the government. I have also enjoyed the possibility of visiting Rio de Janeiro, Campinas and Sao Paulo.

During my visit two themes of special importance have come up.

The first one is climate change. One of the main, and I would argue the main challenge of our time is how we handle global climate change. It is a huge task that we cannot and must not ignore. The only way we can cope with this tremendous challenge is to work in unison and without delay. There can be no global solution to this problem without Brazil as a key actor among the nations. 

All Finnish school children, as well as many other children around the world, learn that the Amazon is the lungs of the world. The future of the Amazon is a question that concerns the whole of mankind. I have been very pleased to notice during my discussions here that the Brazilian government is committed to this question as well as the conservation of the environment in general and that these issues are very high on the agenda. Finland is a land of forests. We have a high level of knowledge both relating to research in the area of forestry as well as the commercial use of our forests in a sustainable way. Forestry, therefore, offers great possibilities for bilateral co-operation between our nations.

Brazil is also a key player in the field of bioenergy. Brazil has long traditions from the 1970?s in this area. I have been impressed by the level of Brazilian expertise and research. In this context I am pleased to note that the Finnish Academy of Science and its Brazilian counterpart CNPQ this week here in Brasília have signed an agreement regarding joint research projects, including bioenergy. Furthermore, in addition to joint research projects, the so-called next generation biofuels offer excellent and very promising opportunities for cooperation between the Finnish and Brazilian commercial sectors. We both have long traditions and high-level of expertise in this field, thus many synergy effects can be found from working together. 

Mr. Vice-President, 

It is also important to realize that the relations between our two nations, though separated by a large geographical distance, are getting closer in many respects. In the political field the ties have been strengthened by several high level visits in recent years. I am pleased that I had the opportunity to accept the kind invitation president Lula presented me during his visit to Finland in September of last year and could carry out this trip. 

In addition to the close political ties, the economic ties are constantly growing stronger. You may know this already, but it is still worth mentioning that the Finnish airline Finnair was the first airline in Europe to order larger airplane models from Embraer. This opened the door for Embraer to Europe, and the rest is history, as they say. Embraer has been a great success story. The relationship between Finnair and Embarer has continued on this strong foundation. Last year Finnair used an option to buy more airplanes from Embraer.

When one looks at the investments of Finnish companies in Brazil the numbers truly are impressive: the Finnish companies and their subsidiaries in Brazil employ over 13 000 persons and the combined turnover is more than 2 billion euros per year. More companies have plans to establish operations in Brazil and there are many investment projects in the pipeline.

Finally, we should not forget the ties between our peoples. Around 10 000 Finns travel to Brazil every year. Brazilian culture is very popular in Finland and the Center for Brazilian studies established in connection with the Brazilian embassy in Helsinki has seen the number of students studying Portuguese skyrocket in recent years.

Mr Vice-President, 

Brazil's transformation into a modern and stable democracy has been an impressive story and invaluable for the development of the whole region. The economic growth and the future look promising and many important social achievements have already been recorded. Finland looks forward to continuing and expanding the co-operation in all areas with Brazil.

Mr Vice-President, I want to express my warmest thanks to you once more for hosting this lovely luncheon.