Overview

Finland is situated in northern Europe between Russia and Sweden and occupies an area of just over 338,000 square kilometres.

According to the Population Register Centre, the country had a total population in excess of 5.2 million people at the end of 2002, with the vast majority living in the southern part of Finland. The Helsinki Metropolitan area, which is comprised of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, is home to about a fifth of the population. Other major urban areas include Tampere, Turku, Oulu and Lahti.

Finland became a member of the European Union in January 1995 and adopted the Euro as its currency at its inception in 2001. It is also a member of several other international organisations such as the OECD, the WTO and the Nordic Council.

The country benefits from an excellent business environment and was placed highly in two major international competitiveness surveys published in 2003. The IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard placed Finland at the top for overall competitiveness in a group of countries and areas with less than 20 million people. The group also included Denmark, in 3rd place, Switzerland in 5th, and Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands in 6th 7th, 8th respectively. The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for 2002-2003 ranked Finland second in the world after the US. In both reports, Finland scored best in the areas of technology and labour.

Figures for 2002 published by the development agency, Invest in Finland, show the country's GDP to be approximately €140 billion. Services, including finance and insurance, trade, restaurants and hotels, generated 52.8 per cent of this, while transport and communication alone accounted for an additional 11.2 per cent. Construction and industry generated 32.6 per cent and agriculture accounted for just 3.4 per cent. Metals, engineering and electronics are among the most prominent fields in the industrial sector and account for about half of the country's exports.

Finland has an excellent network of train, bus and air connections between the country's major cities and beyond. The bus service in Finland is managed by 30 regional operators and offers an extensive service of more than 200 routes, including international routes to both Sweden and Russia. There are also regular train services running between Helsinki and Moscow and St Petersburg. Regular flights operate between Helsinki airport and most major European cities, as well as several other major cities around the world including Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

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