For one, Google seems pretty happy – and keeps beefing up its presence here. Last year the company announced expansions to the tune of € 1.2 billion to its state-of-the-art data center in Hamina, Finland. The Hamina operation is already a significant part of Google’s aim of becoming a carbon-free company; for instance, the data center has been run, for the most part, on carbon-free local energy since 2017. The real innovation here is the use of sea water to power the center’s cooling system – apparently a first solution of its kind in the world.

It seems that the secret’s out on Finland. FDI Intelligence, a service from the Financial Times, named Uusimaa Region – featuring the capital Helsinki and the neighboring Espoo and Vantaa – as the most promising investment location in Europe. The study, compiled early this year, took stock of six categories: Economic Potential, Human Capital and Lifestyle, Cost Effectiveness, Connectivity, Business Friendliness and FDI Strategy.

Hi-Tech Heroes

There’s plenty of life outside the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, too. For instance, German pharmaceutical and life sciences company Bayer is investing €35 million in its production plant in Turku, Finland, with the purpose of improving the security of supply of contraceptive products.

At the same time, PerkinElmer Wallac Oy, part of the American PerkinElmer Group, is boosting its production in the very same town to meet the demand for Covid-19 tests around the world.

Heading inland, we find Schaeffler – one of the biggest family-owned companies in Germany – which set up an IoT Solutions Center in Jyväskylä, Finland, in early 2019.

The IoT Solutions Center has already developed a new condition-monitoring system for advanced industrial use. This means, for example, that the wear of machine parts can be anticipated by monitoring and analyzing data, so that maintenance operations can be carried out in a more controlled manner.

Workforce To Be Reckoned With

In total, 244 foreign companies established operations in Finland in 2019. Out of this group, 37 companies used the services of Invest in Finland, investing as much as € 1.5 billion.

But what is it exactly that has put Finland on the companies’ radar of late? – One thing that comes up – repeatedly – in talks with international companies, is the quality of the workforce.

Finnish employees are highly educated, motivated and committed – with versatile language skills. The main reason behind the companies’ drive to launch their R&D and innovation centers in Finland is this: in order to make ground-breaking products and services, you really need world-class talent to pull it off.   

Rising to the Occasion

As Covid-19 crisis hit, the Finnish workers soon distinguished themselves in the home office, too. Thanks to appropriate technology and networks, the essential digital infrastructure was already in place to allow for large-scale remote working – but it was the human factors that became the wonder of all Europe.

When Finns started remote working in record numbers, productivity didn’t drop or even dip – it stayed the same or even improved a little bit. This clearly demonstrates the value of the Finnish work ethic that is rooted on trust: Finns can be counted on to get the job done amidst adversity, because they are self-steering, resilient and resourceful.

Labor Costs: Looking Ahead!

In addition, the development of salaries seems to be more moderate in Finland than in just about anywhere in Europe. According to FDI Intelligence, only Spain (3.46%) shows a lower projection for development of labor costs among 20 European countries. Finland’s figure is only slightly higher with 4.25% forecast growth, followed by Italy, the Netherlands and Greece (all under than 5%).

At the more expensive end of the study, we find Estonia, Latvia and Hungary, with labor costs estimated to grow around ten percent annually (9.42 - 10.13%). 

What’s more, the Finnish Government just made the decision to drop the electricity tax to the EU minimum level (0,5 €/MWh), starting next year.

How about you and your company – are you interested in learning if Finland could help you? 

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