Turku – Finland: A Major Growth
Centre in the New Northern Europe
Patricia Hongisto, Turku Area Development Centre
The Turku Region is the second largest growth centre on the southern coast of
Finland, after the Helsinki metropolitan area. Turku has an excellent location
right at the heart of an area comprising the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic
Rim and St. Petersburg. 30 million people live within an easy reach of Turku.
This offers the business in Turku a clear potential for continuous growth.
The innovative spirit of Finland makes it a leading country in several world
competitiveness reports, such as those by the Swiss IMD and the World Economic
Forum. Turku is determined to act as the engine of Finland’s future and attract
global companies by utilising its location and concentration of resources.
Setting the pace of innovation
Recent growth has particularly boosted the biotechnology and ICT sectors through
innovation. The traditional industries – foods, metal, publishing and graphic
art – have turned a new page and now provide the basis for new products in pharmaceutics,
functional foods and life sciences, transport and maritime technology, as well
as printing technology and media.
Exciting examples of responding to the challenges
of innovation:
- Pharmaceutical companies such as Leiras-Schering, Orion and Wallac PerkinElmer
Life Sciences form the foundation of biotechnology expertise in Turku. The
traditional core know how lies in diagnostics, biomaterials and functional
foods.
- BioTurku, Finland’s largest biotechnology cluster, offers all the key
factors for building the third generation bio-success. It is predicted to
become the leading cluster in its field in Scandinavia.
- Companies developing knowledge-based solutions ranging from electronics
to logistics have provided an innovative and diversified selection of products
in metal industry and ocean technology.
- Finlux Ltd, an established television manufacturer and a global player
in Turku, is a pioneer in digital TV technology.
- Tourism and the local culture industries are equally innovative in utilising
new technological solutions and developing the content industry.
Extended co-operation to create value
By building a solid chain of training, research and production, involving private
and public actors, the Turku Science Park is an example of shared ground and
shared knowledge for creating value. It combines three universities, 50 research
centres, 13.500 employees, and 750 companies in a single location. Thus, it
links together public and private investments, major construction companies,
and the industry of the Turku business region with 18.000 enterprises.
The
Turku Science Park breeds the future products of biotechnology and bioinformatics,
digital mobile communication, process engineering and transport technology.
It is also common ground for R&D of multinational telecommunications companies
such as Nokia , Siemens, Ericsson, and Sonera. 4.500 employees work in Nokia’s
R&D and production facilities in Turku and Salo.
Excellent location for expanding logistics
The Turku Region is the centre of Scandinavian traffic in Finland, and it has
potential for an overall air-sea-rail-road logistics cluster. Turku has a strong
position in eastward traffic, with connections to the Russian markets and further
to China and Japan.
The new extensions of the airport as well as of the passenger
and container harbours will establish Turku as a leading value added logistics
centre in the very centre of the New Northern Europe.
|
| TURKU - FINLAND, Population and area 2001 |
| |
Population |
Area |
| City of Turku |
174,000 |
306 km2 |
| Turku Business Region* |
360,000 |
5,192 km2 |
| Province of Southwest Finland |
450,000 |
17,187 km2` |
| Finland |
5,200,000 |
374,145 km2 |
| * Turku and Salo combined |
|
| Half of the 128,315 jobs in the Turku
Region are in industry, trade, financial and IT services. Within Industry
(19.5% of all jobs) the breakdown is as follows:
|
| Medical industry (mechanical, electrical and transportation
equipment |
52.5% |
13,309 |
| Food industry |
15.5% |
3,940 |
| Chemical industry |
13.9% |
3,536 |
| Publishing |
8.0% |
2,046 |
| Other |
10.1% |
2,562 |
| Total |
100.0% |
25,393 |
|
- Every tenth life science company in Europe is Finnish, 60% of them
located in Turku
- 25% of all luxury cruise liners in the world were built in the Turku
and Helsinki shipyards
- 4.2 million passengers annually use the Turku Harbour, 6 daily departures
to Sweden
- Turku International airport has 10 daily connections to Stockholm
and Copenhagen, for 2003 two new destinations planned: St Petersburg and
Riga, Latvia.
- The distance from Turku to Helsinki is 160 Km, connections by the
E18 highway and fast train take 1 hr 30 min.
- The E18 highway connects Oslo, Stockholm, Turku, Helsinki, St. Petersburg.
|
TAD - Turku Area Development centre
www.turkuregion.fi
Patricia Hongisto,
Business Development Manager
patricia.hongisto@turku.fi
Tel. +358 2 2627 774
Mobile +358 50 5590 774
Fax +358 2 2627 458
Please quote reference: FT03
