South Karelia Region - Crossing the Border in ICT Business

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Helsinki, 8 April, 2003 — South Karelia Region - Crossing the Border in ICT Business

South Karelia with its 137,000 inhabitants is located on the border between the EU and Russia, 200 km from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and 200 km from the 7 million inhabitants metropolis St Petersburg. With this strategic location, South Karelia has prospered from international commerce for centuries – and the business prospects are now better than ever before. The EU – Russia cross-border operations are everyday activities in business, logistics, research and technology transfer – making the region an ideal base for international trade.

South Karelia with its 137,000 inhabitants is located on the border between the EU and Russia, 200 km from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and 200 km from the 7 million inhabitants metropolis St Petersburg. With this strategic location, South Karelia has prospered from international commerce for centuries – and the business prospects are now better than ever before. The EU – Russia cross-border operations are everyday activities in business, logistics, research and technology transfer – making the region an ideal base for international trade.

Read more about Finland's Information Society from ICT Cluster Finland Review 2003.

Bridging the EU to Russia, South Karelia educates Finnish students in Russian business and Russian students in information technology, thus creating a strong resource base with high education, cultural awareness and linguistic proficiency.

Prospering with the Forest Industry - Innovating with the ICT

The combination of ICT and industrial expertise creates new business opportunities in the region.

South Karelia treasures an exceptional technology intensive hub of forest industry, with several large research and production units of international enterprises, supported by research and higher education of Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and Polytechnic. South Karelia is a natural home base for both small and large scale subcontracting, consulting and ICT companies dedicated to serve the forest industry around the world.

LUT along with Technology Centre Kareltek – with its business premises and development services on-campus – have served as catalysts for innovation and business expansion in the ICT sector, especially in mobile technology. South Karelia also boasts a growing number of innovative ICT companies specialized in high value-added IT services for forest, energy, as well as process and manufacturing industries. The trend will be further stimulated by the interdisciplinary research institutes like Telecom Business Research Centre (TBRC) and Intelligent Industrial Systems Laboratory Center.

Due to the geographical location in Eastern Finland South Karelia is an optimal place for an international ICT company to set up a base for Russian business. Lower cost level than e.g. in Helsinki area and committed high skilled employees make South Karelian R&D sites most profitable in comparison with the other regions in Finland. In addition to the Russian market potential there are ICT resources available. The St. Petersburg region develops an ICT hub of top universities, research units, and dynamically developing local and international companies. The range of ICT companies with experience of co-operation with western partners is expanding all the time; interesting prospects for outsourcing are available in software and software component development as well as testing with benefits of a cost structure.

In an ICT “proximity center“ the partnering companies from the both sides of the EU – Russia border can have offices next to each other in the EU. The daily co-operating development teams can be located in e.g. Technology Center Kareltek in Lappeenranta, while the programmers can work in their hometown on the other side of the border. When needed it is also easy to have a business meeting on the Russian side of the border during a working day.

In South Karelia people value the environment in which they live and work. The region is the place for global ICT companies that values committed people.

More information
http://www.kareltek.fi
http://www.ekarjala.fi
ICT Cluster Finland Review 2003

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