Tampere City-Region: Towards a Knowledge Economy

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Tampere City-Region Towards a Knowledge Economy

• Mika Kautonen - Jari Kolehmainen - Markku
  Sotarauta

Critical
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Tampere city-region overview

• TAMPERE REGION
• population 445,500
• 9 of Finlands population
• GRP per capita 3rd highest
• GRP 19,200 EUR (1999)
• EU 15 GRP index 100 in Tampere 94.9 (2000), 88.3
  (1995)
• TAMPERE CITY-REGION
• population 300,000
• the 2nd largest regional centre
• City of Tampere, town of Nokia and municipalities
  of Ylöjärvi, Kangasala, Lempäälä, Pirkkala and
  Vesilahti
• TAMPERE CITY
• population 200,000

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Tampere City Region
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Tampere city-region from manufacturing to
services

• Industry to develop in the 19th century
  manufacturing of textile and clothing
• At the end of the century, 69 of industrial
  employees in textile industry, 13 in pulp and
  paper industry and 8 in metal industry
• Reparations after World War II contributed to the
  growth of metal industry
• In the 1960s, textile, clothing, leather and shoe
  industries employed 38, metal industry 31 and
  pulp and paper industry 14
• In the early 1980s reorganizations, spin-offs and
  specialization
• Collapse of the Soviet trade affected traditional
  industries

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Tampere city-region from manufacturing to
services

• recession from the early 1990s
• growth of information and telecommunication
  technology and KIBS sectors (Nokia Group alone
  3.600 in RD)
• in 2000, textile, clothing, leather and shoe
  industries employed 4, metal products and
  machine building together 26 (9.800 employees),
  pulp and paper industry 11, and electronics 9
  of industrial employees (total manufacturing
  employment 32.000)
• in comparison, so-called KIBS sector alone 19.000
  employees (software and computer services,
  technical services, consultancy, RD services,
  private training etc.)

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Roots of local competitiveness

• Educated population in Tampere city-region
• of total adult population (gt15 years), 64.5 at
  least secondary level degree, and 26.5 HEI
  degree (nat. average of 59.4 and 23.3 )
• number of university students about 25.000
• RD intensity
• RD investments 14 per cent of national spending
• 25 real annual change 1995-1999 (nat. average
  14)
• growth particularly in the business sector
• share of RD personnel of the workforce high,
  4.6 (nat. average 3.1)
• Nevertheless, Helsinki Region dominates RD
  expenditures with a share of 45 strongly.

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Knowledge Centres in Tampere
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The basics of digital media agglomeration in
Tampere

• roots quite far in history, but the real
  emergence and rapid growth in the 1990s (5.000
  employees in 1996 -gt 10.000 in 2000)
• the business structure very diverse, but
  dominated by the business units of large,
  internationalised ICT companies (especially Nokia
  Group)
• major strengths strong large companies,
  educational institutions and science and
  technology base
• major weakness weak entrepreneurial atmosphere,
  the paucity of (new) companies aiming at fast
  growth and internationalisation
• digital media has been one of the most important
  focus areas of local business development and
  innovation policy -gt large eTampere Programme
  (appr. EUR 130 million) for five years.

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Cosmopolitanism and image

• traditionally, Finland has been a closed society
  with a very homogenous population
• access to the EU -gt increased in- and
  outmigration, immigrants
• yet, images of Finland and especially its urban
  regions outside of the Capital region were not
  particularly prominent in the foreign experts
  field of choices (Raunio 2002)
• several nation-wide polls consistently shown that
  as a city to live in, Tampere rated highest of
  all cities in Finland
• based on e.g. increase of jobs, central location
  and good connections, and the cultural amenities
  of the city (e.g. theatres, festivals,
  congresses).

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Social polarisation

• economic crisis of the early 1990s had serious
  social consequences for Tampere city-region as
  the unemployment rate skyrocketed to over 20 per
  cent
• despite economic growth unemployment rate is
  still over 10 (12,9 in 2001, whole country
  12,0)
• about 25 of the unemployed long-term unemployed
  and among them every second unemployed for more
  than two years
• skills mismatches of the transformation period
  -gt permanent problem?
• 60 per cent of the long-term unemployed 50 years
  old or older, risk especially high in
  manufacturing sectors.

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Sustainability

• during the 1990s, rise of the environmentalism,
  environmental awakening
• local environmental movements key actors in
  process of change by challenging the local
  political traditions/culture and especially the
  tradition of local governance, called
  brothers-in-arms axis
• City of Tampere with a holistic environmental
  management system based on ISO 14001
• Tampere Forum to stimulate local democracy and to
  activate citizen participation in sustainable
  development (est. 1996), a bottom-up approach.

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Governance

• in Finland, trend of the 90s the increasing
  sub-regional co-operation between municipalities
• reasons, e.g. new Regional Development Act
  (1994), small size of municipalities
• local government gained more importance in
  regional policy. The new Act splits the
  responsibility for institutional regional
  development efforts between state and
  municipalities
• sub-regions form the smallest regional policy
  unit
• sub-regional co-operation significant part of
  local activities, yet experiences and success
  vary greatly.

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Strategies focus on

• Health care technology (Finn-Medi ltd)
• ICT (Tampere Technology Centre ltd)
• Automation and mechanical engineering (Tampere
  Technology Centre ltd)
• Media communication (MediaTampere ltd)
• KIBS (Professia ltd)
• Tourism
• City of Tampere is building institutions,
  infrastructure,and is co-ordinating the
  development network etc.

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Some conclusions
Concept of a comprehensive business development
policy by the City of Tampere from 1998 many
integrative aspects already acknowledged, however
operationalisation slower.
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Some conclusions

• several of the proposed challenges are well
  acknowledged in Tampere city-region, including
  learning- and innovation-based competitiveness,
  image of the region, and social inclusion
• cultural aspects increasingly seen important also
  for the local economic development
• cosmopolitanism considered very important, yet
  maybe most challenging among the policy-makers
• sustainability-related matters usually conceived
  as a part of separate policy domain.