The goal is worthwhile, but not enough, according to the Finnish Startup Community. By enabling and promoting the activities of the companies involved, it's easier to increase R&D spending. New jobs are created in new growth-oriented companies.
Work-based immigration, education investments, and supporting companies' R&D investments are the solutions to long term economic growth. Youssef Zad, economist of the Finnish Startup Community, said Finland competes for international R&D investments, especially with Sweden, the Baltics and Germany. The availability of skilled personnel, the proximity of other units and customers of a company, and the level of public R&D subsidies affect which country companies focus their research and development on, said Zad.
The availability of R&D personnel in Finland can be influenced by increasing education places and getting international students to stay and find employment in the country. On the other hand, the proximity of the company's other units can be influenced by attracting companies to locate in Finland in general.
If we can create more attractive business clusters in Finland, it is likely that significant R&D investments will be built around them, said Riikka Pakarinen, CEO of the Finnish Startup Community. Parinen reminded that the gaming industry is a good example of this.
R&D investments have a positive impact on the entire national economy. An optimal amount of R&D expenditures is only achieved with the help of state funding, according to economist Zad. Innovation activities have a positive effect on economic growth in the long term, according to research literature. Public R&D funding and additional tax deductions have been able to increase R&D activities, according to research literature.
The business support policy for the coming decade needs to be looked at carefully so that scarce resources are used most efficiently. The government's budget allocations for research and development in the public sector will increase by 272 million compared to 2021, as recent developments in the public sector's R&D funding policy have been positive. The state's R&D funding will increase to almost 2.5 billion euro in total. The direction of R&D support policy was weak in the 2010 s but the current government has been able to make decisions in the early 2020s in the right direction.
The Finnish startup community invests significant amounts in research and development expenses and aims for significant growth by the year 2030, according to the members of the Finnish startup community. If the growth targets are met and the ratio of R&D expenditure to turnover can be kept at the same level as compared to the current level, this would bring Finland no less than 391 million euros in additional R&D investments. CEO Pakarinen says that this would be up to 10 percent of Finland's R&D spending growth target.