Star News Agency

New Delhi. Mr. Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Economic Affairs, Finland met Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry here today to discuss issues of mutual interest and cooperation and particularly the issue of environment and clean technology. Shri Sharma emphasized that the issue of technologies related to the environment must be looked at in the context of the monumental challenges of development and poverty alleviation. He said that poverty is the biggest polluter and unless and until the discussion on climate change provides for technology transfer backed up by resource transfer to the poorer countries, the objective of mitigation will not be achieved. He said that Copenhagen must build upon Kyoto and not reinvent the wheel and added that the West will continue to be a leader in technology development but when it comes to adaptation, a number of emerging economies have the capability to adapt the technology to their situation. Shri Sharma said: “we are conscious of the need to have clean technology and have been assessing various technologies for mitigation and adaptation. The issue really is however of how to make technology accessible to the poorer countries, given the fact that these are protected by IPRs and are often out of their reach. The issue therefore is one of balance and sharing in the interest of humankind at large”. In this context, Shri Sharma raised the issue of such balance and sharing in other areas also like life saving drugs, access to which should be the right of every human being.

Mr. Pekkarinen, agreed that Copenhagen should provide some political guidance. On resource transfer, he said that there should be fair play and the system of obtaining technologies should be transparent. He said that Finland is very keen on cooperating with India in high-technology sectors. With Finland’s resources and India’s huge knowledge potential, the cooperation could be extremely fruitful.

Both sides agreed to set up a joint business council between India and Finland which would cover not only the core competency of the two countries but a broader band of sectors with potential for cooperation and mutual benefit.