Estonian business delegation visited Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines
The last two weeks twelve Estonian business leaders together with government representatives visited Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. The visit to Vietnam and Indonesia took place on the 4-8th of March and was led by Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Andres Rundu. The following visit to the Philippines took place on the 11-12th of March and was led by the Estonian Ambassador to the Philippines Mr. Väino Reinart.
The visit aimed to strengthen and establish new relationships with local partners.
Mait Palts, Director General of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that there had been two visits to Vietnam with the business delegation since 2011, and the last visit to Indonesia took place almost 7 years ago. “Today, entrepreneurs are used to thinking globally and no target market is too far away. When we first visited Vietnam in 2011, it was a new experience for both parties. But exports and imports have grown significantly in the past few years. “The visited countries are experiencing rapid economic growth, and this creates diverse opportunities for Estonian companies,” he added.
Vietnam
During the visit to Vietnam (4 - 5.03), representatives of the food sector met with Mr. Le Quoc Duan, Deputy Minister for Agriculture and with representatives of the FAO. IT and the financial sector met with Minister Mai Tien Dung, Chairman of the Office of the Government, Mr. Nguyen Duc Trung, Chairman of People’s Committee of Hanoi, Nguyen Thuy Hien, the Deputy Chief Justice of Supreme People’s Court of Viet Nam and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam. In addition, the delegation met with the Ambassador of the European Union, Mr. Bruno Angelet and Economic Advisor of the EU Embassy Ms. Miriam Garcia Ferrer.According to Raul Kaidro, the founder and CEO of RaulWalter, a member of the business delegation of the visit, the delegation was very warmly welcomed by the Vietnamese authorities and the meeting with the mayor of Hanoi who spoke of the city's development and future, left a very bright impression. “In the local context, the development of e-services and e-government related issues is a high priority. In almost all thes meetings, cyber security and cyber crime were mentioned separately. In today's Vietnam, the use of Internet solutions and community is still relatively low, so it is just the beginning. They are in the right time for dealing with these issues right now. Hopefully, we (the business delegation) will find a way to realize our common cooperation, ”said Kaidro.
Indonesia
In Indonesia (6 - 8 March) the delegation had meetings with the Ministries of Finance and IT, the Governor of Jakarta and KADIN, the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Madis Sassiad, Member of the Board of GoSwift mentioned that Indonesia offers a lot of challenges and opportunities with its large amount of ports and vehicles, which creates a good basis for future long term cooperation for GoSwift.
Philippines
In addition to meetings on the governmental level, business meetings with local entrepreneurs took place. On the 11-12th of March) the delegation visited the Southeast Asia visit’s last destination, Manila, the Philippines. In Manila the meetings were held with the Secretary of Finance and with the Department of ICT, the Customs and Statistics Offices, the Ports Authorityof the Philippine and the Central Bank. In addition to that, Ambassador Väino Reinart and the Estonian Honorary Consulate in the Philippines held a reception in the honor of the 101st Anniversary of the Republic of Estonia and the visit of Estonian business delegation to the Philippines. The reception was attended by over 100 representatives of political and diplomatic communities and local entrepreneurs.
“The awareness of the different IT solutions developed in Estonia is high in the various state agencies in the Philippines, especially in the Department of Finance. I think that it is in our favor that they do not want to invent the bicycle themselves, which has already been tried in the past and that they wish to turn to us for best practices. We agreed on a number of follow-up activities, the most tangible of which seems joint work on crossing borders and integrating customs work, which in Estonia is successfully done by GoSwift. There is also a clear interest in more general e-government projects. ”, commented Väino Reinart, Estonian Ambassador to the Philippines.
The visit was organized by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia within the framework of the development cooperation project financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. The visit included12 Estonian companies: Ecomatic AS, GoSwift OÜ, Elcogen AS, Reach-U AS, RaulWalter OÜ, Admiral Markets AS, Haage Joogid OÜ, Farmi Dairy Ltd, PW Partners OÜ, Cybernetica AS, Aktors OÜ and Positium OÜ.