Two nations poles apart

Mr Aho – who was Finland’s PM for five years - is an executive board member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and addressed a “Shape of the New Digital Era” conference hosted by the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce.

Digital solutions are now being applied in all sectors - including agriculture, foreign trade, communications, manufacturing, healthcare, financial service, and education - and are the big topic all over the world, he said.

Aho’s speech explained what governments and companies should do both separately and jointly to get maximum benefits from the digital revolution

“I believe the rules of the game are the same in every corner of the world,” said Aho.

For example, he said, Finland is a small country with 5.5 million people. But it has developed a better capacity to apply digital technologies than many other nations around the world. 

It has succeeded in some sectors and areas like the banking sector which is fully digitalised, while some public sector areas are turning to it in an active way - for example the taxation system in Finland today is digitalised.

“[However] We have other sectors that are still not developing it as much as they should - as in healthcare,” said Aho.

“There are a lot of common interests between Thailand and Finland that we have good reasons to meet on and discuss,” said Aho. Capacity building was one critical element in any innovation strategy. So too were education and university collaboration.           

Thailand and Finland, both are extremely dependent on foreign trade and external markets, so how do we create the competitiveness for local industry that is fundamental for both countries?  Structures of our economies are different but the basic challenge is the same, said Aho.

Moreover, the role of local natural resources in Finland is similar to that of Thailand - agriculture and food processing are developing. In Finland, the forest industry and bio-materials are playing a similar role. 

The environment issue is a common challenge, and Finland must pay attention to clean technologies.

One area in which countries like Finland and Thailand should work together, and is on the ICC’s agenda as well, is for common rules, common principles, how to operate in the global market which should be an equal playing field for all. This would benefit small countries like Finland, while Thailand depends on foreign trade as well. 

The market is not able to provide equal access, it is difficult for Thai companies to survive and that’s why it needs global rules and the global principles applied in the same way in all corners of the world.

ICC plays a major role in resolving disputes in the market, and has upgraded its methods to solve the problem. Another big challenge is corruption that destroys opportunities in free trade and access to the market.

“We have also a new institution called the ICC Academy, located in Singapore. It provides digital services outside Singapore and is a good tool for the education business community to adopt similar principles and practices everywhere,” said Aho.

As the Academy is tested we can see possibilities for the network to expand. 

It was started a couple of years ago and as it grows we learn how it operates.

These kind of services and training here in Thailand, through collaboration with UTCC, are needed in many countries throughout Asia, said Aho.