allAfrica.com: Namibia: Finland Will Stay - Kinni-Huttunen (Page 1 of 2)

Chargé d'Affaires of the Finnish Embassy in Namibia, Seija Kinni-Huttunen, will be leaving the country after her five-year-long assignment here. New Era spoke to her before her departure.

NAMIBIA and Finland share a long and sentimental history of engagement. How would you characterise the two countries' relationship today?

The first Finnish missionaries came to Namibia 140 years ago. The missionaries had a big impact, particularly in the north of the country. There were hundreds of them throughout the years. They did not only ply Christianity, but also healthcare and education.

After that, Finland supported Namibia's liberation struggle. There were also more than 60 Namibian refugees in Finland who completed their studies there. President Marthi Artisaari was also the special UN envoy to Namibia.

After Namibia's independence, it became one of the main African countries for bilateral development and cooperation.

But the Finnish Government has made a decision that more and more financing should go to the least developed countries. A decision was then taken in 2001 to phase out bilateral and traditional cooperation with Namibia and some other countries classified as middle-income countries.

This was a tough decision, I think. It was of course difficult for the Namibian Government to accept it, but we have a similar agreement with South Africa. It was tough for Namibia because we all know even though Namibia's GDP [Gross Domestic Product] is high - a lot of developmental challenges remain.

There is the HIV/AIDS situation, unemployment and poverty.

But it was a government decision and throughout the five years that I have been here, we have been managing the transitional process. According to all indications, we have managed well.

We only have one bilateral project left, which is support to the decentralisation process.

We have also managed to build different forms of cooperation. We are giving two million Euros per year to projects like HIV/AIDS projects, cultural activities, women's projects, and so on. We also have cooperation between municipalities in Namibia and Finland. We have a very lively exchange of students and teachers, and cultural exchange between universities.

We also want to promote trade and investment.

There are a number of activities, which means there is interest in both countries to strengthen their relationship.

Because of the long history the two countries share, Namibia is very well known in Finland. There are so many organisations and individuals who know Namibia. In fact, it is the most well known African country in Finland. Namibia is the first foreign country I have heard about. The first African person I met was a Namibian, Bishop Aune Shilongo, when I was six years old.

Over the last numbers of years we worked to make Namibia even more known in Finland outside the missionary and church circles. We have invited a number of journalists and other groups, and the promotion of tourism.

Tourism from Nordic countries to Namibia has increased by 15 percent last year.

There are also good contacts between small and medium enterprises between the two countries.

People often say how could Finland have found such a similar country. Finland is a sparsely populated country with lots of open areas.

You mentioned that you would like to see improved trade and investment between the two countries. To what extent is this strengthened?

We have tried very hard with our Namibian counterparts. We also have a facility called the trade partnership programme, which is a matchmaking instrument to get Namibian companies with those in Finland. There is a lot of interest here in Namibia but it is a very new facility and there are not yet any concrete results.

Investment is a challenge. It is also a Namibian priority and we have done a lot. There are a lot of good initiatives but still not much has materialised.

As far as trade is concerned, there has been very little, but this has gone up. Trade is mainly in mining, in some years table grapes. We are also working on game and meat not only through the central European market but also directly to Finland and we are now discussing fish.

There used to be trade in leather products. There are also some Finnish companies that export a lot of mining equipment.

Your term in Namibia comes to an end at the end of this month. Describe some of the highs - and lows - during this period?

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