Finland Times

 

A high-profile summit opened in Finnish capital city on Tuesday, aiming to further consolidate the national consensus on the development of green industries.

 

One of the main themes of the green-growth summit, which gathering over 600 notable experts, was the scarcity of resources and the opportunities it created for Finnish companies.

 

Environmental awareness is now expanding in the growing Asian markets, and this emerging megatrend expedites significant possibilities for Finnish cleantech actors.

 

"Finnish companies are primarily aiming at the European, Chinese and Russian markets. Especially in Asia environmental problems need solutions. Finnish companies are often too small and they lack contacts",  stated Green Growth programme manager Kari Herlevi from Tekes, The Finnish funding agency for Technology and Innovation.

 

Jyri Hakamies, CEO of Confederation of Finnish Industries, said in his keynote speech certain that Finland can become a major power despite the fact that Japan, China, U.S. and India are developing the same markets fast.

 

Clean technology is seen as a way to drive economic growth in Finland, a Nordic country that has around 2,000 clean-tech companies and the sector is growing rapidly.

 

Finland is a global leader in energy efficiency, clean industrial processes and bio-energy. The combined turnover of the clean-tech sector was 25 billion euros in 2012, with an annual growth rate of 15 percent.