Public-business-customers-partnership for promoting growth and welfare in the context of Seminar:Role of EU Transport Corridors for enhanced growth

1. Role of EU Transport Corridors for enhanced
growth
Public-business-customerspartnership for promoting growth
and welfare
February 13, 2014
Tuomo Airaksinen
Invest in Finland

2. What is Invest in Finland?
 National Investment Promotion Agency of
Finland
• Consulting services to foreign
companies
• Greenfield investments
• M&A’s
• R&D units
• Search for business opportunities
 Fully funded by Ministry of Employment and
the Economy
 Services are free of charge to foreign
companies
 Confidentiality

3. Northern Growth Zone

4. Northern Growth Zone
 The Ministry of Transport and
Communications and the Ministry of
Employment and the Economy
have launched the Growth Corridor project
and will together take it forward
 Platform for testing new innovations in pilot
projects and possibility to create a living lab
for businesses and innovations
 Enormous potential in trade and bilateral
investments with Russia and in Russian
tourism

5. Northern Growth Zone
 New ways of cooperation between the public
sector and business life provide opportunities
for investments that support growth and
development
 Administration will assume a clear role of the
provider of opportunities
– Growth
– Innovations
 Business community to exploit the emerging
opportunities

6. Growth agreements - City deals
 Lately, urban development policy has taken
remarkable steps in Finland
 Growth agreements with cities in three areas:
1) Competitiveness and resilience
2) Land use, housing and transportation
3) Social sustainability
 Urban development policy based on
agreements is carried out in the 12 major
cities in Finland

7. Growth agreements - City deals
 Examples of the thematic issues defined in
the city deals are
– innovative public procurement
– creation of university campuses and
student cities
– attractive urban environments
– utilization of old non-used railway yards
in the heart of the cities

8. Growth agreements - City deals
 A key rationale for growth agreements
– the strategic focus of actions is taken together
with national players and cities
 This creates efficiency gains and improved
targets
 Agreements are also a potential vehicle to
facilitate the place-based policy in cities
 Improves the international competitiveness of
the cities
– also as targets for foreign investments

9. Innovative Cities Programme (INKA)
 Programme comprises the development of the same
12 cities as in growth agreements
– To create new business and employment through
innovation
 Innovative Cities is a funding tool for the innovation
policies of cities
 The overarching idea is that cities provide a testing
platform for companies to pilot and produce solutions
and services
– first to be tested in the local market and then to be
exported

10. Innovative Cities Programme (INKA)
 The thematic focus of INKA is on cross-cutting
innovation which is not bound to any sector.
 Examples of the thematic areas are
–
–
–
–
smart city solutions
bio-economy
cyber security
future health

11. Why Finland
 The business centre of the Northern European
market area
 Excellent base for knowledge- and technology-based
investments
 World's leading business environment and
competitive economy
– Current facts updated daily in our website
www.investinfinland.fi

12. Finland – cooler than you think!