A series of meetings and celebratory events in Beijing this week marked the launch of the China-Finland Year of Winter Sports 2019 to strengthen cooperative partnerships between the two countries in winter sports

Government representatives from China and Finland met this week in Beijing for the official launch of the China-Finland Year of Winter Sports 2019 which had originally been committed to by the presidents of China and Finland, Xi Jinping and Sauli Niinisto in April 2017, when the Chinese president visited Finland.

The two presidents met again on Monday in Beijing for an official signing ceremony launching the year of special cooperation. The joint partnership theme year marks the first of this kind of bilateral cooperation in sports between China and another country.

In 2022, Beijing will become the first city to have ever hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. While China has not been traditionally known as a strong winter sports nation, Finland's winter sports culture is deep-rooted into the everyday lives of its people. As China prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the country has also set the goal of developing 300 million winter sports enthusiasts.

China and Finland have a long history in sport cooperation. Soon after forming diplomatic relations in 1950, China sent a team to the Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games. In order to build a strong winter sports culture, China has allocated resources to develop the infrastructure around winter sports. Major investments are being made in the development of physical education in schools, fitness for all campaign, and mass sports all the way to high-performance sports.

Anne-Mari Virolainen, Finland's Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, led a business delegation to the high-level opening week of the China Finland Year of Winter Sports 2019 in Beijing.

"I am happy to observe the positive development between Finland and China over the past few years. China is our most important trade partner in Asia and fourth largest trade partner globally. I believe this special year of cooperation can offer many highly interesting opportunities for Finnish and local companies as well their public sectors, leading up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and beyond," the minister said.