Indonesia has extended a logging ban aimed at protecting rainforest despite fierce industry pressure, the government said Wednesday, although green groups say the move still does not go far enough. Swathes of rainforest have been chopped down by palm oil, mining and timber companies in Southeast Asia’s top economy, which has become the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter as a result. [...]

Ingela Bendrot, Swedish State Secretary to the Minister for Infrastructure, is currently on a visit to China for meetings and activities focusing on transport solutions. Bendrot had a meeting at the Ministry of Transport on Monday for a half-time review of the Sino-Swedish Action Plan on transport solutions signed in 2011. The Action Plan has led to furthered Sino-Swedish exchange [...]

The Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh announces the award of $ 1.5 million to support the Community Based Adaptation Program. An extension agreement between Sweden and UNDP was signed on 10 May, 2013 in Phnom Penh by Anne Höglund, the Swedish Ambassador to Cambodia at the Embassy of Sweden and Setsuko Yamazaki, the country director of UNDP. Sweden will, through [...]

Under the framework of the Program on Enhancing Coastal Community Resilience to Natural Hazards in Vietnam (M2CCR Project) supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), a Curriculum Review Workshop was recently conducted in Hanoi by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in partnership with the Vietnam’s Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (IMHEN). This is the second [...]

  TEKES, the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, Employment and the Economy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organized by Team Finland China Day,which was held this Tuesday, attracted more than 300 international business professionals and business leaders in the industry to discuss the opportunities in China and in cooperation with Finland and China. The event opened the Director General [...]

Seeking investment opportunities and promoting Vietnam-Finland trade links were the focus of a seminar held in the central city of Danang on May 6. Participants were briefed about the city’s socio-economic development, its business environment, policies to attract foreign investment and related regulations to support establishing partnerships between Finish and Vietnamese enterprises. Development programmes for businesses and universities in Danang [...]

By Shada Islam  Asian and European ministers for education meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 13-14 to study ways to strengthen and develop an education partnership for the 21st Century. The meeting is part of the multifaceted and informal process of Asia-Europe Meetings (ASEM) – a forum for dialogue and cooperation between European and Asian countries – which was [...]

Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), met with Juha Rannikko,the visiting Finnish chief of defense staff, and his party on the afternoon of May 6, 2013 in Beijing. Xu Qiliang noted that Finland is one of the first Western countries to have established diplomatic relations with China. China attaches [...]

Following the general election in Malaysia on Sunday 5 May 2013,  the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, Catherine Ashton, on 7 May 2013 issued the following statement: “I wish to congratulate the Malaysian people for their peaceful and enthusiastic participation in their 13th general elections. I would [...]

Indonesia hopes that the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries will make large investments in the country once they seal a free-trade agreement. According to an industry official such investment will be necessary to turn around continuing trade deficits with technologically more advanced EFTA countries. EFTA comprises four European nations; Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, which are among the [...]