5.1 Finland in a changing world economy
5.2 What is the National Economy invested in?
5.3 R&D and internationalization
5.4 ICT Finland
5.5 Nokia - a big company in a small country
5.6 ICT cluster in Finland - A historical perspective
5.7 The World's most competitive nation?

5.1 Finland in a changing world economy

Central to economic growth are investment and, most importantly, the introduction of new technology that it can bring. Finland has traditionally had a high degree of investment.

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the volume of R&D investments in Finnish industry has grown more quickly than in other OECD countries, at an average annual rate of about 10 per cent. With this pace of growth, Finland reached the top level of small industrial countries by the end of the millennium. Another factor that has radically changed the structure of corporate investments since the 1980s has been internationalization.

Finland's exports and its companies' international specialization are mostly based on technology developed in Finland. So far the role of foreign high-tech companies has been relatively minor. In this respect Finland has chosen a clearly different strategy from, for instance Ireland, where the economy is largely based on foreign investments and technology.

The importance of foreign companies is however growing rapidly in the Finnish economy as well. This is particularly true in the ICT sector, where foreign companies and investors are putting money into Finnish firms with intensive know-how capabilities.