Keen to further enhance bilateral cooperation with the Kingdom, new Finland ambassador in Riyadh, Pekka Voutilainen, expressed a strong will to strengthen bilateral ties especially in the education sector, as the Finnish education system is recognized worldwide and has been declared one of the best in the world by many global studies and rankings.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Tuesday, the Finnish ambassador who took charge recently maintained, “I am very excited about my new assignment in the Kingdom and intend to build upon good relationship maintained by my predecessors for mutual cooperation.”

“I would like to further enhance and deepen our cordial relationship to make it even better and more versatile,” he added.

Commenting on cooperation in education sector, Voutilainen said that Finland’s Minister of Education Science and Telecommunications Krista Kiuru is visiting the Saudi capital to further strengthen ties between the two friendly countries.

During the visit, she will meet her Saudi counterpart to assess the ties and further enhance the cooperation.

Accompanied by a large delegation comprised of representatives from educational institutions, senior executives and officials representing various companies and government officials, the minister is expected to visit prestigious King Saud University (KSU), Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University, Colleges of Excellence, TVTC and King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Project for Public Education Development (Tatweer), the envoy said.

He added that these institutions of higher learning in Riyadh have retained a good level of cooperation with Finland, and that the ministerial visit will further bolster cooperation in the education sector.

“It is indeed a key area where we have the potential to explore better relationships and share our values for further cooperation, so that Saudi experts and researchers can benefit from our experience,” he noted.

He added that Finnish excellence in the education sector has inspired educators worldwide to seek out the key factors behind their success story.

Voutilainen was also affirmative that memorandums of understanding between the two countries are under consideration and added that vocational training and teacher training will be the major topic of discussion during the minister’s visit.

Notably, the Kingdom is keen to strengthen its education sector and, since its establishment, had always allocated the highest per capita to the education sector and that, like Finland, education in Saudi Arabia is free for all citizens.

Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah recently launched a program to overhaul Saudi schools and ordered the allocation of $22 billion for this ambitious task, which includes building schools to train more than 25,000 teachers and sending many of them abroad for more education.

The envoy further pointed that as the minister is also in-charge of telecommunications, and an MoU between the two countries will be signed in this sector during the significant visit.

According to the ambassador, the balance of trade is slightly in favor of Finland.

He added that Finland is not currently importing petrochemicals from the Kingdom, and he expressed hope to change this. The Kingdom imports heavy machines and ICT from Finland, he added.

Saudi Arabia and Finland have previously enjoyed a very positive relationship, as reflected in their mutual signing of the Convention on Economic and Technical Cooperation in 1976 in Jeddah which, to this day, is still very much relevant.

Moreover, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral political consultations between their respective ministries of foreign affairs in Jeddah in October 2007.