Blogs

The future outlook of tourism is positive. Tourists appreciate local food, clean nature and the activities it offers, peace and quiet, space around them, and our individual and unique culture – and they are also prepared to pay for these experiences.

The Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOKs) offer a networking platform for companies and cutting-edge research, through which to engage in intensive and long-term research cooperation.

The accelerated prevention of a grey economy is one of the government’s leading projects in which the Ministry of Employment and the Economy is also taking part. The role of the ministry is to secure fair and sound competition between businesses.

Employment and Economic Development Services were reformed in early 2013. At the same time, new regional Employment and Economic Development Offices opened their doors for the first time. The reform was accompanied by entry into force of the new Act on Public Labour and Enterprise Services and the adoption of national service telephone numbers.

At present, Finland is experiencing a period of transition in its economy and industry. The former splendour of Nokia is on hold, at least for a while. Moreover, in the past few months several industries have announced unpleasant news on adaptation measures, the latest being related to the much-covered story of the shipyard in Turku.

New foreign investment and capital would mean a sought-after boost for the Finnish economy. We need more developments like Google's investment in a data centre and Huawei's decision to establish a research unit in Finland.

The cleantech industry, based on environmental and energy technologies, is growing by over 10% annually in Finland, even when growth in other areas of the economy remains slow.

Could half of the energy we use come from renewable energy sources? This may be the case by 2030, if the EU Commission’s evaluations become reality.

Surveys inform us that citizens have highlighted nursing and care provision as their main concerns in the forthcoming municipal elections. People don't grumble about taxes if they feel certain that their money helps to secure good care for children and the elderly. Neither do they object to specialised private sector companies as care providers.

The social exclusion of young people has a human as well as an economic dimension. The human impact is difficult to verify in numbers, but the signs of social malaise among young people are visible.

As sales director for an SME during the recession of the early 1990s, I never had any difficulties in recognising a customer. The customer was the king who brought in the money. I spent a lot of time with customers and urged the entire organisation to do so.

Combined, the agencies and institutions of our Ministry and branch of government form a large actor. MEE Corporate employs well over ten thousand employees (but you shouldn’t describe it as “a big concern” in English, though, as that would refer to a different matter altogether).

Companies swear by business intelligence, i.e. management-based on information. It is essential to gain at least a quarterly insight into the development of the operating environment, orders, sales, production, customer preferences, competitors and the economy. While the public sector has the same aim, it has not shown the same intent with respect to making use of knowledge management.