High Tech Takes Over
As recently as the 1960s, the Helsinki region was dominated by traditional heavy industry. But today's major players are high-tech stars like IT and telecommunications.

"The information sector is the fastest-growing branch in Finland," says Nyrki Tuominen, business development manager for the city of Helsinki. "It's heavily concentrated in the Helsinki region."

Leading the charge for the region's strong move into the high-tech arena is mobile phones manufacturer Nokia, which, amazingly, was in an entirely different line of business -- cables and rubber boots -- as recently as 11 years ago. Today Nokia is a global leader, ranking No. 1 among Finnish companies in R&D spending. Its skyrocketing success is a perfect example of Finnish innovation and technological prowess.

"All the leading companies are choosing to set up e-commerce operations here, and they say 'We must be here, because the knowledge is here,' " Aura reports. "In fact, the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, has called Finland the 'Silicon Valley of e-commerce.' " Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, SAP, Razorfish and Lotus are among the firms choosing Finland for e-commerce development in recent months.

Above right: High-tech headquarters: Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone supplier, is based in Espoo, Helsinki's next-door neighbor.

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"Finland is a leader in advanced technology for several reasons," Aura adds. "We have technology-minded people, with an internationally high level of technical education. Twenty-five percent of Finland's higher education degrees are in engineering -- the highest ratio in the world. We're a leader in both Internet penetration and usage and telecom infrastructure and development. And 20 percent of our exports are in high technology."

The University of Helsinki (with 32,000 students) and all major university-level institutes in Finland are in the Helsinki area. With the exception of the Helsinki University of Technology (with 12,500 students, situated at Otaniemi in the city of Espoo), they are located in the city of Helsinki.

What's more, roughly 80 percent of Finns between the ages of 25 and 34 have been through university or vocational training, which helps explain the country's readiness to adopt modern ideas and technologies.

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Above: Growing numbers of high-tech firms are discovering that the Helsinki region has the brainpower resources to help them compete in the global market place.

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"There will continue to be a good work force here for information sector companies in coming years," Tuominen says. "We're concentrating our educational system toward that sector. If your business is something that needs brainpower -- well-educated, well-trained employees -- then Finland and the Helsinki region are as good as any location anywhere."

With that background, here's a closer look at the Helsinki region's three major cities: Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.