Finland as a Knowledge Economy: Elements of Success and Lessons Learned

Monday, May 16, 2005

The presentations were based on a new book being authored by Finnish experts in collaboration with the World Bank Institute’s Knowledge for Development Program. (Download the book overview. PDF, 161Kb) This book is one of three on developed economies being sponsored by the World Bank Institute — the other two countries are Japan and Korea (forthcoming).

Finland, a small remote economy in Northern Europe, severely battered by a financial crisis at the beginning of the 1990’s and the collapse of its trade with the former Soviet Union, quickly recovered and went on to become the world’s most competitive economy (as ranked by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for three of the last four years) by becoming a knowledge economy.  In contrast to most economies in crisis that slashed spending on research and innovation, the Finnish case is distinct: the government and the private sector increased their R&D and innovation efforts, and used the crisis as an opportunity to make a major transformation from a natural resource-based economy to a knowledge-based one. This included not just developing the ICT sector, but using knowledge to leverage the performance of the natural resource-based sectors.

Watch the event on B-SPAN Video!

Opening remarks

Jean-Eric Aubert, Lead Specialist and Acting Manager, Knowledge for Development Program, World Bank Institute.

Presenters

• Kari Janhunen. Financial Counselor, Project Advisory Services, Embassy of  Finland , Washington DC.
• Pekka Ylä-Anttila, Research Director of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
  • Presentation (PDF, 219Kb)
• Jorma Routti, Professor,  Helsinki University of Technology & CIM Creative Industries Management. Former President of SITRA & Director General of Research DG of European Commission.
  • Presentation (PDF, 361Kb)
• Carl Dahlman, Luce Professor of International Affairs and Information Age Technologies, School of Foreign Service , at Georgetown University .
  • Presentation (PDF, 226Kb)

Discussants

• Lauritz Holm-Nielsen, Lead Education Specialist, LCSHE (Education Sector), World Bank.
• Alfred Watkins, Science & Technology Program Coordinator, World Bank.
• Vandana Chandra, Senior Economist, PRMED (Economic Policy and Debt), World Bank.

Closing Remarks

• Danny Leipziger, Vice President of PREM - What have we learned and what are some of the implications for Bank?