Finnish President on state visit to SA

The president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, is on a state visit to South Africa currently and met with SA’s President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday.

Today, he is giving a speech and having discussions with students at the Witwatersrand University, in Johannesburg, with his speech topic being how to respond to common challenges in the era of shifting geopolitics.

During his visit, the President will also meet local foreign policy experts. His discussions with President Ramaphosa focused on geopolitical situations and security, global challenges such as climate change, problems related to food security and their impacts on the African countries, and the bilateral relations between Finland and South Africa.

The Finnish President also participated in a discussion event about the countries’ joint opportunities of using smart, safe and sustainable solutions for promoting sustainable growth, which was also attended by representatives of Finnish and South African trade and industry.

“We are very impressed with President Niinistö coming back to South Africa again,” commented Grant Chapman, MD of the South African cyber security organisation Cybervision, which has been doing business with the Finnish cyber security company WithSecure (previously F-Secure) throughout Africa for 30 years now.

“WithSecure is the largest cyber security organisation in Europe and we have always found dealing with them and the Finnish people very rewarding, with them always being very decent and totally honest. In fact, President Niinistö last visited South Africa in 2013 when he attended the memorial service for President Nelson Mandela,” added Chapman.

Finland has also been voted as the happiest country on earth for the past six years, according to the World Happiness Survey. “This is apparently due to much lower income inequality, the freedom to make decisions, high social support and low levels of corruption, which are some of the main reasons why Cybervision is so fortunate to be doing business with the Finnish cyber security company WithSecure.”