8th Arctic Business Forum opens in Kemi today

The two-day long 8th Arctic Business Forum organised by Lapland Chamber of Commerce begins in Kemi today with the view to review the latest global and local developments affecting the Arctic business.

The forum will be inaugurated at 9.30am at the Kemi Cultural Centre where Mayor of the City of Kemi Tero Nissinen, Chairman of Board, Lapland Chamber of Commerce Juha Mäkimattila, Country governor of Lapland Mika Riipi, and Vice Chairman of Arctic Economic Council Tero Vauraste will speak at the inaugural session.

This year the forum takes place in Kemi, and from now on this annual event will be held in different cities by turn, chamber sources said. “Kemi will be an interesting venue this year from a number of perspectives and we are planning to hold the forum at different places every year from now on,” Lapland Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Timo Rautajoki told the Daily Finland. He named Levi, a more northern city, as the possible venue of the business conference next year.

The Kemi-Tornio region is one of the biggest industrial centres in the Arctic which nowadays offers a huge possibility of foreign investment, Rautajoki said while detailing the reasons for hosting the forum in Kemi this year.

The region’s future development in forest industry at Kemi and Steel industry at Tornio offer various possibilities to SMEs in subcontracting and, while the latest investment in the region, a 1-billion-euro biofuel plant, is being installed by the Chinese Sunshine Kaidi New Energy Group specialized in bioenergy, he pointed out.

The chamber President also eyes various business possibilities other than tourism in Lapland, emphasising mining and metal industries, following the price hike of building and construction raw materials.

He also expressed his optimism about seeing more business flow into the Arctic in the near future as the economic recession in the region is almost over.

“As in the previous year, we hope to see 200 business experts and entrepreneurs taking part in the forum in Kemi. They will also get an opportunity to visit new industrial units during the programme,” said Rautajoki.

He also appreciated the interest and cooperation extended by the City of Kemi in hosting the event.

The Arctic Business Forum is an international event that gathers companies and business-related stakeholders from Finland and abroad. Special attention is paid to strengthen business-to-business cooperation by organising B2B meeting points and business pitch sessions.

The forum will evaluate the development of international Arctic business cooperation in the changing political situation. The Arctic Business Forum Yearbook 2017 will also be launched during the event.

Business Sweden will organise a Swedish session during the forum introducing Sweden’s business interests and possibilities in the Arctic aiming at activating Swedish companies to operate in the region. The session, moreover, is a platform to facilitate and connect Swedish and Finnish companies with international companies.

The forum will have a focus on the latest update on the Arctic Shipping in the Northern Sea Route and Arctic Railway plans together with the ports of European High North.

The Arctic is now a trendy destination and with the rising volume of tourism, new direct flight connections have been opened from Europe and Asia. The forum will review how the access possibilities to the Arctic will develop against this booming demand, besides the latest news from investment projects in forest, steel and mining sectors and transport connections in the European Arctic region.