Finland Times

According to the release, the Gällivare Business Hub supports the already existing cooperation between Norway, Sweden and Finland’s Arctic Valley, while offering companies in the Northern Scandinavia routes to the global market. Through the business hub, Oulu, the capital of Northern Scandinavia and the largest city in the region, offers an “Arctic Gateway” for the euro area.

The Business Hub model, developed for networking and business cooperation, has been successfully tested at the Finland House in Tromsø since the beginning of 2014.

“Direct contacts will contribute to creating a network that the whole region can put to use. The idea is that it is as easy as possible for businesses to start working, helping each other and implementing large-scale projects,” BusinessOulu observed in the press release.

In Gällivare and Kiruna in Sweden, the cooperation initially focuses on construction projects, mining, civil engineering and supporting subcontracting knowhow as well as sharing best practices in Arctic building and construction.

Arctic building and construction is the special strength of Oulu. Every year, around 2,000 new homes are completed in Oulu. Hiukkavaara is an Arctic Smart City test area – a living lab that utilises clean-tech, ICT, eHealth and construction expertise. This knowhow and development work is also used when Swedish cities close to ore fields are rebuilt.

The release also pointed out that in the next 10 years, business investments in different sectors in Norway, Sweden and Finland will amount to EUR 155 billion. The number of operating oil fields in Northern Norway north of Lofoten will increase from three to nine. The cities of Gällivare and Kiruna will be moved to new locations. In Northern Finland, there will be new mines, wind and nuclear energy, metal and biotechnology as well as civil engineering. The construction of Fennovoima’s Hanhikivi 1 plant alone is an investment of EUR 4-6 billion.

Companies are greatly interested in the North. This could be seen from the fact that about 60 Finns attended the Finland Business Hub’s opening ceremony in Gällivare, noted the press release. “Only the fastest ones had a chance to buy tickets for Arctic Airlink’s 31-seat plane that Business Oulu had booked for business use.”

Finnish Business Hub’s main partners in Sweden are Företagsbolaget i Gällivare, Gällivare municipality, the Norrbotten Chamber of Commerce, and DDIG Housing in Gälliva.