296 new foreign firms start business in 2020

In 2020, 34 new companies started operations in Finland and invested more than EUR 574 million. As a result, more than 910 new direct jobs were created in the country, said Business Finland in a press release on Tuesday.

According to Business Finland’s estimate, a total of 296 new foreign enterprises entered Finland last year, which is the largest number since the peak year of 2017.

“Last year, ‘Invest in Finland’ contacted more than 900 international companies and initiated negotiations with more than 200 companies about potentially choosing Finland as a location for their business. We have organised a customised, company-specific, high-profile visit or a virtual visit to Finland for more than fifty of these companies,” said Invest in Finland Executive Director Antti Aumo.

The impact of the coronavirus on global foreign direct investment was significant.

According to UNCTAD’s preliminary data, the global investment flows collapsed by 42 per cent last year but, nevertheless, Finland did excellent.

Many of the new companies came through acquisitions but a significant number of new companies were established as well.

Among the companies that invested in Finland were Garmin, a company known for its consumer electronics, media group Schibsted, software service company Visma, construction machinery rental company Boels, logistics company Mitsubishi Logisnext, and data centre and internet connection service company Equinix.

According to the ‘Finland as a Business Location 2020’ survey, foreign-owned companies perceive the business environment in Finland in a more positive way than Finnish companies do and they have been satisfied with the functioning of society, stability, and digital infrastructure, even during the year of the coronavirus.

“Surprisingly, the number of new foreign-owned companies has remained at the same level as in 2019. By industry, most of the new foreign investments were made in business services and in the ICT sector. The sectors that benefited most from the coronavirus year in Finland were health technology, ICT, digital consumer services, and logistics,” said Aumo.

The largest number of new foreign direct investments came from Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

Slightly more than one-half of the investments were allocated to Uusimaa but investments were also made in Northern Ostrobothnia, Southwest Finland, Pirkanmaa, and North Savo, among others.

In addition to new investments, those foreign-owned companies that are already operating in Finland have made a total of about 130 expansion investments in Finland.

Several expansion investments were made in the manufacturing industry, when, for example, Andritz Oy, which supplies equipment to the paper and pulp industry, announced that they would invest in expansion both in Varkaus and Savonlinna.

Pharmaceutical companies Bayer and Perkin Elmer Wallac, among others, increased their production and personnel in Finland last year. Green values are also reflected in foreign companies’ investments. Both Ikea and Google invest in their own wind farms in Finland. Ikea now produces enough renewable energy in its wind farms in Finland to equal the annual consumption of a city the size of Turku.