Chinatown rises in Kouvola
Space for 120 Chinese companies in disused dairy
By Matti Huuskonen
On Tuesday, only one door was in use. Paimenpoika, the local agricultural producers' own store,sells salami, yoghurt, fodder, and mats for the cows.
Apart from that, it is quiet. The local cows have produced milk for Valio for over a year.
Something new is in store, however. The train track runs almost next to the dairy. It comes from the far East, from China, as do the new owners of the dairy, Southeast-Chinese businessmen Jiazhu Wang, Liang Mai and their third partner.
The three bought the dairy in May and will set up "China Center", representing 120 Chinese companies, by autumn.
"Clothes, shoes, furniture, and home appliances. Maybe later even cars", Sirkku Seila, CEO of Kouvola's Yritysmagneetti describes.
"At best we have received three 51-waggon trains a day. China could easily double the amount to six trains", she outlines.
"As long as we come to an agreement with the Russians about the cost of using the Trans-Siberian Railway."
Seila gives us some background from five years ago: The city was trying to find ways to attract businesses, and decided to rely on a railroad track reaching from South-Eastern Finland and Russia, all the way to China.
Seila and Kouvola Mayor Aimo Ahti went to China to advertise Kouvola as a crossroads for cargo transport between east and west.
They brought back an agreement of cooperation, but the true stroke of luck came a year and a half ago: businessmen were looking for a location where that would be convenient for commerce in the Nordic Countries, northern Continental Europe, and North-western Russia.
They chose Kouvola.
Kouvola's success was a result of both the city's China-mindedness and good ties with China.
The latter are taken care of by Lao Hua Fu, an importer of heat pumps who has lived in Kouvola for 11 years.
Lau Hua Fu is currently in China advertising the China Center. Seila's latest information about the number of companies involved is 30 companies at the end of April, "which is enough to start out with".
"This is globalisation at its best", Seppo and Anna-Liisa Pietarila comment on the changing of the local milk and chocolate pudding into Chinese equivalents in the Paimenpoika store.
"Having heard of the trouble in nearby Kuusankoski and Voikkaa [which face the closure of a large paper mill - a major local employer], I think it is good that large dairies can be taken into new use", the old owner of the Jussila farm in Anjalankoski observes on the quiet yard of the dairy.
Kouvola intends to house the first wave of Chinese in an old military garrison.
The city will sell an entire apartment building in that area to the city's own resident Chinaman Lao Hu Fu.
Lao has offered half a million euros for the shabby, 42-apartment building.
The building is practically empty already. One door opens when knocked on: Ville Vuorinen, a student of graphic design, was already packing his things, but his roommate Sakari Nordman intends to stay as long as he can, to the end of May.
"An interesting decision indeed. I did not think that the Chinese would take my home", the new use of the building is a surprise for both.
Neither of the men have anything against the Chinese as such. There is even a pair of chopsticks in the kitchen sink, and on the table next to the hamburgers and potato salad, a genuine rice boiler.
It is not from China, but in neighbouring Japan, where Nordman spent a year with his missionary family.
An international house in the international Kouvola, at the western end of the eastern railway.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.5.2006
More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: Rail link to China a boon for industry
MATTI HUUSKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
matti.huuskonen@hs.fi
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Chinatown rises in Kouvola
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