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Those quality-of-life assets, combined with top-notch educational institutions, have made Espoo a virtual magnet for high-tech business activity. The city's Otaniemi district, for instance, is home to northern Europe's largest concentration of technology-related research and business. Otaniemi is also home to the Technical Research Center of Finland, the Innopoli Technology Center (a science park with incubator operations), and many other research facilities.
"Some 830 computer technology companies and 80 telecom companies operate in Espoo," says Pirjo Latva-aho, the city's business development manager. One of those telecom firms is Nokia, Finland's No. 1 high-tech company. It's also headquartered in Espoo.
Nokia is easily Espoo's largest private employer, accounting for approximately 5,100 jobs in the city. Its growth in the Helsinki region is nothing short of explosive.
"Nokia plans to enlarge its head office here," says Latva-aho. "It's adding 177,700 sq. ft. (16,500 sq. m.). And along Ring Road I, near Sun Microsystems, Cisco and other high-tech companies, it's adding 355,400 sq. ft. (33,000 sq. m.)." Today Nokia occupies roughly 1.8 million sq. ft. (167,000 sq. m.) of space in Espoo.
Growing numbers of companies are choosing Finland as a safe, stable location for accessing the vast new marketplace opening up in northwestern Russia (including St. Petersburg and the Moscow region) and the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). Transportation connections from Finland to those markets are efficient and well developed.
We are talking with several companies which were considering establishing production operations in St. Petersburg, but now they are looking to establish in Finland, near the east coast, because the situation in Russia is not so stable right now, says Sirkka Aura, chief executive, Invest in Finland Bureau. For example, one of the companies plans to ship everything it produces in Finland to Russia.
Germanys ProMinent Dosiertechnik GmbH is one such firm. The manufacturer of top-of-the-line water measurement, treatment and disinfection equipment established a sizable facility in Helsinki about three years ago - too large, in fact, to be designed for the Finnish market alone.
This investment decision was taken largely due to opportunities in the Baltic countries and, of course, Russia, says Peik Kuuluvainen, managing director of Prominent Finland Oy. The Russian market is endless, enormous.
Patrick Andersen, managing director of DHL International Oys Helsinki operation, says Russia offers great potential for Finnish firms. There are a lot of old business relationships between Finland and Russia, he explains. Its easy to deliver to Russia from here, and Finland is the only EU country that borders Russia. We hope the economies to the east will shine in the next five to 10 years.
Russia and the Baltics currently are only a small part of what we do here in Helsinki, reports Martti T. Maattanen, senior vice president, business development, ABB Oy. During Soviet times, it was perhaps 10 percent of turnover. Its even less now - less than 2 percent. But when the Russians start to invest again, there is not anywhere in the world better positioned to access northern Russia than Finland.
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Espoo, only a 15-minute drive west of downtown Helsinki, is Finland's second-largest city. It stands out for its open expanses and scenic natural beauty. Espoo has an archipelago of 165 islands in the Gulf of Finland, and nearly 100 lakes or ponds inland.
More than 400 international companies, including some 100 U.S. firms, have located in Espoo. Examples include 3M, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Compaq, DuPont, Glaxo Wellcome, Hitachi, Johnson & Johnson, Lucent Technologies, Pfizer, Philips, Siemens, Sony, Texas Instruments and Xerox.