This report has provided general background package on Helsinki metropolitan area and Finland in general according to work package 2 structure. The development path of Helsinki thus includes the existence of regional imbalances that cause that Helsinki metropolitan area has expanded to its own scale in Finnish urban system. This covers all fields of measurement e.g. population, economic activities, number of businesses and number of students. Also the number of migrants is considerably higher in Helsinki metropolitan area than in the other parts of the country.
Second, the important factor is the history of education. The main universities located in the Helsinki metropolitan area have a long history dating back to 19th century and the oldest one to 17th century. The long history in provision of the highest education and knowledge labels the city and its current condition.
Third, the creation of the institutional frames for the welfare society in the 1950s to 1970s is important, because they have marked the path to the current societal of Finnish society. Welfare provision and the concept of equality are deeply rooted to national policy making and ethos. An example of this is that Finland was the first country in the world where women had equal voting and representation rights in parliament elections in the year 1907. In that election 19 women were elected in to the national parliament. They were the first women in any national parliament world-wide.
As can be seen, long historical traditions, creation of key institutions and development of general level of education of people are important issues in the development path of Helsinki metropolitan area and Finland. To summarise the essential claims there are the following additional points to consider:
History: Since the capital was moved from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 due to Russian need to have the capital closer to their boarder, Helsinki has increased in all fields to a size of “natural national leader”. The first step in this process is the population growth and national migration from rural areas to cities.
Economy: Due to the size difference to other Finnish regional nodes it has practically been a necessity that national level and international level large sized companies locate their headquarters to Helsinki region. Majority them are located in the
metropolitan area. The global success of some of the Finnish companies (e.g. Nokia, Kone, UPM) has lead to a situation that these old Finnish companies have their headquarters on the metropolitan area, which is one of the backbones of Helsinki’s growth. These global players have also generated a large subcontracting network benefiting the whole region through SMEs.
Culture: Due to the capital status, size and economic wealth in Finnish scale, Helsinki has also been the centre of cultural attractions and cultural life in Finland. However, the competition on the field in culture is harder with the old capita Turku than on other fields due to Turku’s cultural heritage.
Education: Helsinki metropolitan area has seven university status educational units and the amounts of students was over 64 000 in 2004 (also analysis by van den Berg
& Russo 2004). The amount is over a double compared to any other regional capitals in Finland. Thus, Helsinki region produces professionals and offers professional appointments to a large extent within the regional cluster. Helsinki region also absorbs master degree graduates from all parts of Finland. Graduates move to capital area also from the “second” clusters of Tampere and Turku.
Thus, the development of Helsinki is very much due to the history, size and capital status that has developed the capital area. Currently, successful businesses have made the Finnish growth and recovery from the economic crises of the 1990s possible. Therefore, also the actions done in the 1990s have had an important role in the development of Helsinki metropolitan area into its current condition.
The condition of Finnish economy is currently biased between income measurements and employment measurements. The service sector is the most important employer but the majority of the value-adding to the GDP comes from industries. In the case of studied creative industries the most important sector is ICT. Other important sectors include advertising, publishing, and radio and television activities.
Future prognosis
The future trends look good for Helsinki metropolitan area. It has been one of the fastest growing regions in Europe during the last decades. European Economic Research Consortium (ERECO) concluded, that in the second half of the 1990s Helsinki was among the three fastest growing cities among the 45 city regions with respect to population, employment and GVA (gross value added) growth. The future forecasts are also positive. Helsinki will remain among the fastest growing cities in Europe in terms of population, employment and production.
Helsinki’s ICT sector remains to be competitive and will be able to share the worldwide growth in demand. The expansion of the private sector is predicted to continue, maintained by steady domestic consumption. In addition strong economic growth of Russia and other nearby regions is expected to enhance markets for Helsinki based industries. In addition, the location close to markets Poland and Baltic states gives certain locational advantages. In contrast to most other European metropolises, Helsinki is less dependent of the tight markets of central and Western Europe.
Helsinki can be regarded as a modern and dynamic city with well trained labour force coupled with systematic investments in R&D. There has been a massive economic change towards open, globally integrated and ICT-driven economy, together with political stability based on Nordic welfare state. As already mentioned Helsinki has been successful in many recent international comparisons concerning competitiveness, education, innovations and the quality of life. However, it seems that there several challenges to tackle. The high position rankings have not resulted to extensive in-flows of foreign investments. In addition, the impact on location choices of international firms and their main offices has been relatively modest.
Another of the faced challenges is related to housing stock and planning. There is growing need for small scale appartments and attached houses. For example, the city of Helsinki dominated by apartment buildings and the availability of small houses is considerably higher in the surrounding municipalities. It seems, however, that Helsinki’s housing stock remains dominated by small blocks of flats long to the future. The housing
policy is challenged also by population growth. It will continue in the Helsinki region. A vast majority of the growth will arise from inhabitants of foreign origin. Their share expected to double in less than ten years. The population growth will be take place on the fringe of the metropolitan area. The city of Helsinki has experienced negative net-migration for several years.
Finally, governance has a strong influence in to the future development of Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipalities and their authroties have monopoly in urban planning on their regions. Municipalities also own much (and even the most) of the land they aim to develop. The role of the local authorities continues to be essential in the planning and housing policy in the years to come.