Finland’s PM Sanna Marin accuses Europe of being too dependent on China for technologies

Europe is too dependent on China for technologies insisted Finland’s PM Sanna Marin insisting that investment should be made in new fields to combat this situation.

Speaking today, Thursday, November 17, Sanna Marin, the Prime Minister of Finland expressed her belief that Europe should be more aware that it is currently too reliant on China for modern technologies.

Marin was attending Slush, an annual startup event in the country’s capital of Helsinki. Talking on stage with Sluch CEO Eerika Savolainen, Marin said: “Let’s be honest, we have vulnerabilities already. We see it when we look at chips or semiconductors, we are too dependent”, she insisted.

The Finnish PM pointed to the problems experienced during the coronavirus pandemic where medical supplies – which came mainly from China – were suddenly found to be in short supply. Also, there is a similar lesson to be learned from the crisis Europe now finds itself in due to its dependency on Russian energy she said.

“We have to make sure that we have the capabilities and the knowledge to build these technologies and not be dependent on China and other authoritarian countries that have a different logic than democratic countries have”, stressed Marin.

Investment in new innovations in technology fields such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence should be urged throughout Europe she added: “I really worry about this technology part because I fear we are making the same mistakes with technology and digital solutions and also raw materials we need to build these technologies”.

Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, went into depth about the role of the governments in creating an environment for innovation with Slush CEO Eerika Savolainen. #slush2022 pic.twitter.com/AZEaTJ1uFd

— Slush (@SlushHQ) November 17, 2022

Finnish PM @MarinSanna is very clear at #slush22 . Democratic countries need to win over authoritarian countries. We shall not be blackmailed. #Helsinki #Finland #energy #tecnology pic.twitter.com/xIUDVAcwvL

— Christina Forsgård (@kittikatti) November 17, 2022

___________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.