Minister Risikko Delegation Visit in China

On 4-5 May the Third China International Senior Services Expo (CISSE 2014) and related Forum, Beijing. A Finnish booth was organised together with Active Life Village, Finnish and Chinese companies and BJAST. About 400+ customers visited and several b-2-b meetings were organized. The Finnish business delegation, led by Mr. Jaakko Rissanen, CEO, Orion Diagnostica, and the official delegation of Minister Paula Risikko’s with Vice President of China Association of Social Welfare, Ms. Xiaoli Feng, visited the booth and studied the solutions and established cooperation.

The main target for participation was to raise awareness of Finland, Finnish companies and their solutions in the field of care, and this goal was reached. The Expo reflected the broad based interest in this area in China, including real estate developers, care home providers, care and medical equipment and other wellbeing products, such as food. According to Mr. Juha Lipiäinen, CEO, ALV, “The best takeaway from CISSE was to get a complete view of the elderly industry in China and how China approaches it ‘end to end’ from building construction to health foods and everything in between. Chinese have a good grasp of the elderly person’s needs and how to meet those. Combined with advanced Finnish wellbeing technology, this could be a winning combination.”

On 5 May the Senior Service Science and Innovation Workshop was organised at Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, BJAST, Beijing. Matti Hämäläinen gave an invited talk and joined the planning of future activities with BJAST and the 2012 co-initiated International Research Center for Senior Service Innovation (IRCSSI) involving BJAST, Fraunhofer IAO and Aalto with DIGILE and ALV. BJAST is one of the key partners in China for research in Senior Services Innovation.

On 6 May the International Seminar on Intelligent Community and Home-Based Senior Care Service Innovation was organised at Yulong International Hotel, Beijing. On behalf of the Finnish parties Mr. Matti Hämäläinen gave a presentation on Senior Care Service Innovation in Finland. In the afternoon a visit to the Yangfangdian Elderly Care Community and to Cuncaochunhui Care Home was organised for the business delegation of Minister Risikko and the Sino-Finnish cooperation and experiences were presented by Dr. Jianbing Liu, Director of BRCUSE/BJAST, and other experts. Both events received visibility in the Chinese print media and TV.

On 7 May a workshop for the business delegation of Minister Paula Risikko was co-organised with ICT Alliance, Finpro and Zhongguancun Life Science Park (LSP), Beijing, to discuss cooperation opportunities in health and wellbeing with particular focus on the wellbeing of elderly and the development of services for senior communities. A very large community of over 1000 people is planned at Zhongguancun LSP, including also a Peking University hospital. The event was opened by Mr. Tom Zhu, Finland Representative Office, Zhongguancun Software Park, followed by several companies based at LSP, including Beijing CSCEC-Zhongguancun Bio-pharmaceutical Investment Co.ltd, PKU HealthCare Industry Group, CapitalBio Corporation, Mindray Corporation, Taikang HealthCare Research Center, and Lawke Health Laboratory Center for Clinical Laboratory Development.