Helsinki Times

Motlanthe ends Finland visit

“PRETORIA – Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has concluded his visit to Finland with a pledge to partner with the country in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and marine industries.

The two countries also agreed to cooperate in areas of water treatment and management and vocational training.

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Could Finland be Building Another Global Telecoms Business?

“HELSINKI-BASED Alekstra has established a successful business lowering the cellphone bills of corporate customers including McDonalds. The savings come through a suite of services which recognise billing errors from mobile networks and optimise rate plans by ensuring companies do not buy features they do not need.

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Finland’s Outotec focuses on Indian iron-ore miners

“FINNISH minerals and metals technology solution provider Outotec has drawn up major expansion plans for India by creating a design hub in the country and offering small, 1.5 million ton capacity iron-ore pelletisation plants to small miners.

“We are looking at small pellet plants which could be customised according to demand. There is a lot of interest for small pellets plants among small Indian miners,” Outotec India MD Apurba Chakravarty said…”

MINING WEEKLY 9 May. AJOY K DAS

Fruugo quits Helsinki, boss blames everyone else

“TROUBLED Finnish startup Fruugo is on the move. After burning through some €37 million in funding over the past few years — apparently generating only €100,000 in revenues along the way — the ambitious, but struggling, e-commerce company is shifting the remainder of its operation from Helsinki to the UK.

The site has barely made a dent in the market, despite the heavy investment and involvement of high-profile figures like Nokia’s last two chairman, Jorma Ollila and Risto Siilasmaa…”

GIGAOM.COM 9 May. BOBBIE JOHNSON
LEHTIKUVA - RONI REKOMAA

Finland Suffers Upswing in Cyber Crime as Hackers Hit Companies

“FINNISH companies are facing an upsurge in cyber crime, with more than one in ten big companies attacked by hackers, according to a study.

About 11 per cent of the country’s large companies had network security breaches over the past three years, compared with 1 percent in 2008, the country’s Chamber of Commerce in Helsinki said in a report published today. The report was based on surveys of 1,681 corporate managers…”

BLOOMBERG 9 May. KASPER VIITA

How did the Guggenheim Helsinki dream go sour?

“IT looked like such a perfect match: one of the best arts museums in the world meets one of the most fashionable countries in the world. Guggenheim goes Finland! But it was all too good to be true: last Wednesday Helsinki city board rejected the Guggenheim Helsinki museum with a narrow vote of 8-7.

The museum was a brainchild of Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, a US-educated sleek and savvy director of The Helsinki Arts Museum, who has made few friends in the Finnish left-leaning arts crowd...

THE GUARDIAN 4 May. SASKA SAARIKOSKI

Finland Risks Slow Growth as Competitiveness Falls, Report Shows

FINLAND is facing a period of slowing growth as exporters struggle to keep up with global competition, the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries said. It’s ‘alarming’ that Finland is moving into a trade deficit and shows how the competitiveness of exporters is being eroded in the long term, the Helsinki-based industry group said in a report today…”

BLOOMBERG 3 May. KASPER VIITA

Finland picks Israeli UAV

“THE medium-weight version of Israel’s Orbiter-2 mini-UAV system has been selected by Finland to support its tactical ground forces. Defense Update, an Israeli defense industry publication, reported that Finland is acquiring 55 unmanned aerial vehicles from Aeronautics Defense Systems at an expected purchase price of about 23 million euros.

The Orbiter-2 is electric powered, has a flight endurance of about 4 hours, a range of almost 50 miles and a maximum ceiling of 18,000 feet…”

UPI.COM 4 May
Kuva: Israeliweapons.com

What Finland can teach China about education

“A FOCUS on daycare rather than rote learning is why Finnish students have some of the best global test scores,” says Jiang Xueqin - deputy principal at Peking University High School and the director of its International Division. ‘Chinese students might be more creative if they took a leaf out of their book.’

‘I’ve just finished a week visiting Finnish schools, and on my last day, while touring Finland’s best high school, I ran into China’s vice minister of education, who was spending the day in Helsinki looking at what China can learn from the world’s best K-12 school system…”

THE.DIPLOMAT.COM
1 May. JIANG XUEQIN

Finland’s Neste Oil sells first biodiesel to US market

“FINLAND’S Neste Oil has recently supplied its first batch of NExBTL biodiesel to the US market. NExBTL renewable diesel is an ideal low-carbon fuel for the US market because it is compatible with existing infrastructure and is accepted within the existing refinery and pipeline distribution system, the company says.

The fuel, which qualifies as an advanced biofuel in the US, was produced at the company’s Porvoo refinery in Finland from waste fats…”

HYDROCARBONPROCESSING.COM 2 May
Lehtikuva- Matti Björkman