Knowledge economy of Finland: things to learn from

To date, Finland has a leading position in the world ranking for the development of "knowledge economy". The concept of "knowledge economy" is actively promoted in Finland along with the overall national idea, knowledge management is organically used in both the private sector and public administration. The widespread implementation of knowledge management programs allowed Finland to successfully overcome the effects of the global financial crisis. We outline the distinctive features of the Finnish economy in the framework of the "European" Arctic model and make an attempt to highlight the key areas of knowledge management development in Finland which, without exaggeration, cover all aspects of society: public institutions (parliament, local authorities); non-profit organizations (e.g., foundations such as "Sitra", "Etla"); educational system (pre-school education, secondary schools, universities); business (a substantial contribution to the common cause of "Nokia", the development of the ICT sector, including gaming business and information security cluster). Thus, in the present article common features of Russia and Finland are examined, enabling to learn Finnish experience of rapid transition to knowledge based economy. Unlike other studies, where considerable space is devoted to the quantitative analysis of economic indicators and innovation, in this paper, we primarily focus on the measures taken by the authorities on the development of "Knowledge Society". The author pays special attention to implementing a knowledge management system in the Finnish Parliament, prepared by the Committee for Future Development. Understanding the need for a fundamentally new style of work in the whole country and in public administration first of all led them to the changes not only in Parliament but also at the level of local authorities in cooperation with universities and businesses. We provide vivid examples of Finnish cities that implemented programs and projects for the development of "Knowledge Society" with usage of new services to enhance efficiency of their performance on the basis of front-line ICT. Moreover, the ways of interaction between business and government are shown, including the experience of "Nokia" which at a certain stage became a flagship of the Finnish IT sector and now includes not only the production of mobile devices, but also software development, gaming industry, information security cluster, etc. Ultimately, it is concluded that all the measures in the aggregate made it possible for Finland to move rapidly to the "knowledge economy". Results of the study may be of interest in the Russian practice both for the northern regions of the country, similar with Finland in geographic /climatic conditions of the area, and at the federal level to develop declarations to involve citizens in the process of transition to the knowledge economy.

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