Finland aims to have world’s best environment

By 2050, Finland will have the most attractive and agile space business environment in the world which all companies operating here will benefit from.

This vision is the key message of the final report of the working group on space business opportunities in Finland.

The working group submitted its report to Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä and Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner on Wednesday.

“We want to make Finland a bold actor in the utilisation of space, and we want to make sure that Finland’s space business ecosystem grows and evolves,” said Lintilä. In this regard, he mentioned that “Finnish business, research and administrative operators have already joined forces to support space business opportunities. Business Finland has its New Space Economy programme and the European Space Agency (ESA) has a business incubation centre in Finland, to name a few examples.”

“Satellite-transmitted data and different kinds of space-related applications have quickly become the mainstream. The space sector is now opening new opportunities not only for the public administration and the big industry but also for small operators,” said Berner.

“The public administration aims to create a favourable environment for businesses to generate and deploy high-quality space data openly for different kinds of purposes,” Berner added.

The working group outlines in its report a space business vision for Finland as well as recommends a number of goals and measures to help enterprises enter the market, to influence international developments and to promote research and develop space administration by 2025.

Lintilä and Berner set up the working group on 16 March 2018 tasked it with preparing a proposal for including new measures in the Finnish space strategy to promote growth and employment.

The working group chaired by Confederation of Finnish Industries Director Riikka Heikinheimo is comprised of representatives of the Economic Affairs and Employment Ministry, Transport and Communications Ministry, Defence Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office, Aalto University, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Business Finland, Rolls Royce Oy, G2 Invest Oy, and Reaktor Innovations Oy.