Skilled Labor

  • Finnish engineers’ strong qualities are: problem solving, systematism, responsibility, and motivation to face new challenges.
  • Finland boasts one of the best-educated workforces — 45 % of the nation’s employees are highly-skilled and the region has almost half of R & D jobs in Finland.
  • Nearly 30 % of all degrees awarded in Finland come from STEM programs.
  • Most internationally significant universities are in the Helsinki Region and 14 % of the people have a graduate degree. The Academic Ranking of World Universities has recently ranked the University of Helsinki as 57th in academic or research performance in the World.
  • In English language proficiency, Finland ranks fifth best in non-native countries. The Helsinki region is the most international region in Finland.
  • The DESI-index, maintained by the European Commission, ranks Finland as one the most digitally advanced countries in the world – especially in digital skills.

The Helsinki region has almost half of R & D jobs in Finland

Infrastructure

  • Finland ranks 10th in the World Banks Logistics Performance Index. From the Helsinki Ring of Industry, one of the best airports in the world is only 30 minutes away. It provides you the fastest route between Northern Europe and Asia.
  • The nearby state-of-the-art Vuosaari, Kilpilahti and Hanko harbours are highly specialized and rank among the safest and fastest in the world. All three ports can be reached either by road or train from the Helsinki Ring of Industry.
  • Thanks to Finland’s granite bedrock and no major natural hazards, the Data Centre Risk Index 2016 rates Finland as the safest data center location in the EU and fourth safest in the world. Microsoft, Equinix, Yandex, Telia, Fujitsu, and Hetzner have already built data centres in the region. In addition, Google has one of its most modern data centres nearby.
  • Most important cloud services are fast and available: service providers such as Google, Microsoft, and Fujitsu all have data centres near Helsinki. Many data centres also offer low-latency connections to IaaS/PaaS providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
  • Green & renewable utilities are available and affordable. For instance, district heating can be produced from 100 % renewable sources. St1 is also drilling to a depth of around 6.5 kilometres in the bedrock to build an industrial-scale geothermal heat plant.
  • Green transportation is here. For instance, by 2020 Helsinki region Is set to be one of the first regions to switch public transport and trucks to use 100 % waste-based biofuels.

Access to Technology

  • Many companies utilize the engineering expertise and technology in the Helsinki Ring of Industry to create environmentally and economically smart solutions. For instance, the data centres can feed heat energy back to the power grid or use the cold sea water for cooling.

Specialized Cluster

  • According to the digital barometer, Finland ranks 3rd in the world. The barometer measures recruitment difficulties, use of big data, and cyber security among other things. Digital services are becoming one of the key success stories of industrial companies in the Helsinki Ring of Industry.
  • Cleantech companies in the Helsinki Ring of Industry are growing fast. Finland reached second place out of 40 countries in a study measuring innovative growth companies in the cleantech industry. The industry has their own association Cleantech Finland ry.

Travel time to Helsinki airport is around 30 minutes and between 20 - 50 minutes to various cargo and passenger ports.

Network

  • 80 % of data between Western Europe and Russia flows through Finland, which makes it a network hub between Central European, Russian and Asian markets. Fast network connectivity to Central Europe is available through 144 TB/s sea cable, which runs directly from Helsinki to Rostock.
  • The 5G Momentum ecosystem is helping Finland to reach its goal of becoming number one in 5G technology. Finland’s pro-trialling legislation and flexible regulation make it a fertile ground for 5G experiments. Moreover, Finland boasts comprehensive and advanced mobile networks that fare well in international comparison. These are some of the reasons world leading network companies have research and product development organizations in the region.
  • Helsinki Region is the place of decision making in Finland. The Parliament and most of the regulatory authorities are in the Helsinki Region as well as many of the larger business headquarters.

Transparency

  • The ethics and responsibility in the public and private sectors are among the best in world. Helsinki is the leading city in Europe in open data.