Clean transition creates growth for Europe
The decades of Finland’s industrialisation pushed Tampere into a spiral of positive development in the 1880s.
The era of Tampere’s strongly growing attraction began at the turn of the 1990s, when Finland invested in higher education and innovation-led growth policy.
New expertise in the technology industry was created around the University of Tampere, which brought more companies, jobs and students to the city. A strong manufacturing industry city became one of the Finnish technology-industry hubs.
The University’s significance is also highlighted today.
“Every other Tampere resident is a student. The success of the university renewal was important to us,” says Juha Yli-Rajala, Group CEO at the City of Tampere, praising the merging of Tampere University of Technology, University of Applied Sciences and the University.
Tampere also has an ideal location. The city is, at the same time, close and far enough to the engine of economic growth, the Helsinki metropolitan area.
It has instilled a do-it-yourself attitude in the city’s decision making.
“Back in the day, Mayor Jarmo Rantanen said to me that we have to do it ourselves. It meant that Tampere can’t wait around for the state to step in and fix the city’s issues”, says Juha Kostiainen who has worked as the Director of Economic Development of the City of Tampere.
